Chance
by DramaLexy
Summary: She wasn't supposed to fall in love, she didn't mean to get pregnant, and she never imagined losing him. Sequel to 'Destiny'. Kara&Lee with some Sharon&Tyrol stuck in there.
1. Z minus 15 months

TITLE: CHANCE

AUTHOR: DramaLexy

DISCLAIMER: Not mine, except for a select few characters. They know who they are.

SUMMARY: She wasn't supposed to fall in love, she didn't mean to get pregnant, and she never imagined losing him. (Begins four and a half months after the end of my fic, Destiny.)

DISTRIBUTION: Sure if you want it. Just drop me a line with where

AUTHOR'S NOTES: This is basically a collection of days, spanning a few years in BSG's little AU future that I've come up with. So sorry if it's a bit jumpy, but it's supposed to be. **Anything up to episode 8 is fair game as far as spoilers go.** **I have a few very basic concepts in here that are yet to come to pass in Season 1, but nothing that the whole internet isn't already talking about. If you REALLY don't want to know, you should probably steer clear of this fic**.

The chapter titles say where everything falls into the timeline. This first chapter is fifteen months before little Zak Adama is born, and about seven months after the miniseries. I think that's all of my notes. Hope you enjoy! Please R&R

* * *

"Colonial Heavy 798, this is Shuttle 026-Golf on final approach," Captain Lee Adama said over the wireless system in the shuttle that he was co-piloting with Lieutenant Kara Thrace. 

"Roger, 26-Golf, you are cleared to land."

Lee nodded to Kara. "She's all yours."

Under normal circumstances, she would have come up with a crack about the fact that the shuttle had been hers since the moment they took off. But this wasn't a normal circumstance, and they weren't on an everyday transport flight from the Galactica. They were flying Commander William Adama over to the ship that had been designated as Colonial One until 0124 hours that morning, and at 1200 hours, it would become Colonial One again, but right now, it was just one of a few dozen ships in the Battlestar Galactica's ragtag fleet.

President Laura Roslin had finally lost her battle with breast cancer. It had hit everyone hard, although it had come as a shock to few. She'd finally been forced to reveal her condition a month earlier. Everyone knew she had been living on borrowed time, but Roslin had hoped to make it to the end of her term. She'd fallen just two and a half weeks short. Elections within the fleet, held the previous month, had already chosen Gordon Rawlings as the new president. He would be taking office that afternoon. They had decided not to transfer power to Roslin's Vice President, just to shift it again in eighteen days. The fleet desperately needed some stability.

Even though Kara hadn't flown a shuttle in a couple years, she landed it perfectly. Lee swallowed a little jealousy at her natural talent. Adama's hand on her shoulder conveyed his appreciation for the smooth flight as he got up from his seat. She gave him a small smile and continued with shutdown procedures while he went to meet the official that was waiting for them outside the hatch.

"You okay?" Lee asked Kara as he helped her with the checklist. "You've been quiet."

"I'm sick of funerals," she sharply replied without taking the time to look away from what she was doing. Lee left her alone.

* * *

"We can shed our tears, now that she has left us, or we can smile because we had her in the first place. We can turn our backs on tomorrow, and live in yesterday, or be happy for the tomorrow she gave us with yesterdays. We can remember only that she has gone, or cherish our memories and let her live on. We return her body to the universe, from which the Lords brought her to us, knowing we will be reunited in the better world that is to come. So say we all," Priest Elosha finished the ceremony. 

"So say we all," replied the group of politicians, civilians, press, and officers gathered.

Kara wasn't sure what else happened at the service; her mind was in a fog. They seemed to be returning body after body to the universe on autopilot. It made her wonder if they were actually winning this battle, actually making some sort of progress, or if the human race was slowly slipping off to oblivion. _Yeah, gotta get those kind of thoughts out of your head before you sit in a cockpit,_ she scolded herself.

Lee approached her, where she was waiting by the shuttle in Colonial One's bay. "He'll be ready in a minute," he told her, tipping his head toward where Adama was speaking with President Rawlings. "He said to start the preflight."

"I already did the external checks," Kara told him, her eyes focused on some point on the wall across the shuttle bay.

"You ready to get back to the ship?" Lee asked.

"I'm just ready for this day to be over."

* * *

By the time the shuttle was back in the Galactica's bay, Lee could see that its pilot was a few shades paler than normal. That concerned him, as he watched her do the post-flight, and he debated whether or not trying to talk to her would be in his best interest. 

"You could help, you know," Kara shot as she rounded the tail of the craft. "Or is the almighty CAG too good for post-flights?" Lee grabbed a clipboard.

"Why don't you head out?" he told her. "I'll cover for you."

"I'm fine, Lee, honest. Being tired isn't much of an excuse around here; we're all tired."

"We all also give each other breaks when we need them. You've been pulling more than your fair share around here, with training and CAPs."

"Whatever."

"Kara, don't shut down on me."

"I'm not frakking shutting down!" She then realized her voice was probably a little too loud. Whether they were dating or not, she couldn't talk to a higher ranking officer like than in the middle of the hanger deck. "I'm not shutting down," she repeated, quieter, as she looked away. Kara was trying to force the lunch she'd had on Colonial One to stay down, but it wasn't working. Without saying a thing, she gave Lee her clipboard and walked off deck.

After a (very) quick word with Tyrol, Lee found her in the bathroom, emptying the contents of her stomach. He wet a towel and put it on the back of her neck. "Talk to me, Kara," he told her, his voice low, as he stood behind her. She sighed.

"I'll be fine, just…some days the hopelessness of it all is a little overwhelming."

"We all have those days. You're allowed to be scared, you know."

"Since when?" she asked with a drop of sarcasm as she went to wash her mouth out.

"You're can be whatever you want to with me." They looked at each other for a long minute, and he thought he saw the armor around her emotions start to come down, but then another officer came in the room, and the walls went back up.

"I have to get back on deck," Kara told Lee. "I'm off at 2300."

"I know," he told her with a slight smile. "I make the schedule." He could see that 'those three little words' were on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't say them – not on-duty, and not with an audience. Lee nodded slightly, letting her know that he understood, so she headed back out on the deck. He made his way towards his office; there were a lot of things that needed taking care of.

* * *

When Kara finally got off her shift, she wanted nothing more than a hot shower and a bed, preferably one that she was sharing with Lee. However, entering his office after giving a warning knock revealed that he was still at his desk, going through paperwork. "You're still at it?" she asked him. 

"Yeah, gotta catch up on what I missed today." Kara slowly nodded.

"How much hot water do we have left?"

"You can use the whole ration."

"You gonna join me?" Most nights, that would get her a smile, even if he didn't say yes. But,

"Not tonight, Kara." She hesitated a moment, not sure whether or not to press, or if he was holding the brevity of their earlier conversation against her. In the end, she decided to head for the bathroom alone.

Hot water was a luxury on the Galactica, and Kara always enjoyed every second of her rations. The ship was generally kept at about the same temperature as a mid-fall day on Caprica in order to conserve resources, so cold showers didn't help at all. Even though Lee said she could have the whole four minutes worth, she made sure she didn't use more than two. He got chilled just as easily as she did.

Before deciding whether or not to put pajamas on, she went to see where Lee was with his paperwork. "Are you coming to bed?" Kara asked, leaning against the doorway wearing nothing but a towel. Lee had to force his attention to stay on his reports.

"Not yet."

"Come on, Lee – "

"Kara, I need to finish these for tomorrow." That came out a little harsher than he'd intended, but he did have things that needed taking care of before early shift the next morning. "Sorry…Go to sleep; you need the rest." She gave up, and the sound of the door slamming behind her let Lee know that she wasn't happy about it.

* * *

By the time he finally did go to bed, he only had a few hours before he would wake up out of habit for early shift. However, one of the things he'd secretly been working on that night was getting his and Kara's shifts changed to mid. A couple of the pilots owed him favors. 

When Lee woke up, Kara was still asleep, and he laid there for a good half-hour, just watching her. She was the kind of person who took her troubles from the day with her to sleep – usually she woke up with her blankets more off than on. However, when the two of them shared a bed, her problems seemed to melt away, and he was glad he could give her that.

Kara's eyes finally cracked open, and a small smile crossed her face when she saw Lee. He returned it. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"Watching you," he straightforwardly replied.

"You're nuts, you know that?" she asked as she started to get out of bed. Lee grabbed her hand, effectively stopping her and pulling her back to his side. "What are you doing? We've both got shifts this morning."

Lee just shook his head and reached for the little table that was by the bed. He picked something up, and then held it in front of Kara's eyes so she could see – a ring. "Marry me," he whispered.

"Lee…"

"We both know how short life is. I want to spend mine with you. I don't want to waste another second of our lives not being together."

Kara's eyes were still fixed on the silver band he was offering her. "How did…where did you find this?" she asked him. It wasn't as though the Galactica – or any other ship, for that matter – had jewelry stores.

"That's my secret," Lee told her. "When I'm around you, unexpected things seem to happen." He was amused by the hint of a blush he thought he saw on her features. "You know, you haven't said yes or no."

"Sorry, my brain's not handling higher functions too well at this point." But she still didn't answer.

"Kara!"

A devilish grin crossed her face; she was enjoying messing around with him a little too much. "Yes."

"Yes?"

"Did you really think I would turn you down?"

"You had me scared for a minute."

Kara kissed him. "I love you," she whispered.

Lee smiled, putting the ring on her finger. "You're beautiful when you're happy."

"I'm happy when I'm with you….and as much as I would love to just stay here with you all morning – "

"We're both on mid-shift today."

The mischievous grin had reappeared. "So does that mean we have eight whole hours before we have to leave this bed?"

Lee looked at the clock. "More like seven and a half."

"Oh, whatever shall we do with ourselves?"

* * *

That night, when Kara got off of her shift, she decided to make a detour before going back to Lee's office. Heading up towards the CIC, she knocked on Adama's office door, and then entered once he'd acknowledged her. 

"Sorry to interrupt, Sir," she told him. Adama shook his head.

"The day I'm too busy for one of my favorite pilots is the day I quit. Have a seat, Lieutenant." She did, albeit a bit apprehensively. Adama could read into it. "Are you off-duty?" he asked her.

"Yes, Sir."

"Then I suppose we can leave this rank business at the door, hmm? Since it doesn't look like you're here to talk about work."

Kara shook her head. "No – " she stopped herself right before she added the 'Sir.' "No, we're not," she told Adama. "I know Lee just got off shift as well, or at least he was supposed to be off shift."

Adama smiled. "My son, the workaholic. I'm afraid it's genetic."

Kara nodded. "I know," she returned with a grin. "But I assume that since he's been working, he hasn't had a chance to talk to you today."

He raised an eyebrow. "No. Is something wrong?"

"Actually, no, things are very right."

Adama sat back in his chair, a smile on his face. "He finally asked you, hmm?"

Kara couldn't keep her surprise hidden. "You knew?"

"Lee talked to me a few weeks ago about the idea. Congratulations."

"Are you really okay with this? I mean…" She trailed off, looking down. They both knew what she was trying to say.

Adama was quiet for a long moment. "There isn't much that's simple about this, is there?" he asked, more talking to himself than to her. "I knew you first through Lee's eyes as his friend, then Zak's as…and then, Kara, I saw you for myself. Learned who you were firsthand. And over the years, you've become the daughter I never had." She inhaled sharply; suddenly aware of how close she was to tears. "Lee's loved you for a long time, Kara. Probably longer than even he realizes. I was surprised when Zak informed me that you were seeing each other; I'd always assumed…" A ghost of a smile appeared on his features. "That doesn't matter now, does it? What's done is done, and yes, I am very much okay with this. I'm glad you've both found happiness."

"Thank you, Sir," Kara said with a smile. Adama nodded.

"Now, go drag that son of mine away from his work and both of you get some rest. I need my best pilots in top form."

"Yes, Sir." Before Kara left the office, however, she went around Adama's desk and gave him a hug. "You've been a good 'father', too," she told him. "And I know neither Lee nor I have always made it easy."

"It wouldn't be worth it if it was easy."


	2. Z minus 12 months

"Hold still," Sharon Valerii told Kara with a smile.

"Are you giving orders to your commanding officer?" Kara asked, feigning shock.

"Yes, Sir, now do it." They both laughed, but Kara obligingly stopped messing around with her dress uniform. They were both standing in front of the mirror that was in Sharon's locker as she finished fixing her friend's hair. Kara hadn't found the time to get her blonde locks cut in the past few months, and her hair was officially the longest it had been since primary school: just about chin length. Sharon had put makeshift-curlers in her hair when it was wet earlier in the day, and they were now seeing how well their experiment had worked.

"Wow," Sharon said as she took out the last curler and admired her handiwork. "Pretty nice job, if I do say so myself."

Kara laughed. "Very nice."

"Lee's going to be in awe."

"Yeah, I can't remember when was the last time he saw me dressed up…or at least as dressed up as you can get while in uniform."

"You could have worn a dress," Sharon reminded her.

Kara shot her a Look. "Yeah, like that was going to happen."

"Okay, turn around, let me see." Kara obeyed. She was in full dress uniform, actually wearing some make-up that Sharon had somehow managed to find, and, of course, there was her hair. "You look amazing."

"I look like a girl," Kara countered. Sharon laughed.

"Yeah, you do, but that's okay, because you're getting married."

There was a knock on the hatch, and Adama entered the pilot's bunkroom. "At ease," he told them both before they could react. "I'm not a commander today."

"I'm going to go see how close they are to being ready," she told Kara, excusing herself.

"Thank you for your help," she told her friend. Sharon smiled.

"I'm just returning the favor." Kara had helped her out a few months ago when she'd married Tyrol. It was amazing how parallel their lives had become.

Alone with her soon-to-be father-in-law, Kara felt a blush warm her cheeks as he took in the sight of her. "I'm cutting my hair tomorrow," she told him, only half-joking.

"You look beautiful," he replied.

"Thank you, Sir…So are you nervous, or is it just me?"

Adama smiled. "What are you nervous about?" he asked. Kara was quiet for a long moment.

"That this is all a dream…and all too soon I'm going to wake up."

The hatch opened again, and Sharon stuck her head in. "They're ready," she told her friend. Adama extended a hand to her; even though he was actually receiving her into his family instead of letting her go, she couldn't have imagined anyone else giving her away.

"Shall we?" he asked. Kara smiled, putting her own hand inside of his. Just before they left the room, he whispered in her ear, "If this is a dream, then hopefully none of us wake up."

* * *

The ceremony was being held in the officer's mess hall, and Lee did have to remind himself to breathe when he saw Kara. He hadn't asked what she and Sharon were going to be doing all day, holed up in the latter's bunkroom, but he hadn't expected this. 

"You lose a bet?" Lee whispered in Kara's ear as she stood beside him in front of the priest. She gave him a sideways look that let him know she'd pay him back later.

"We are here on this day," the priest began, "To celebrate one of life's greatest moments, to give recognition to the worth and beauty of love, and to add our best wishes to the words that shall unite Kara and Lee in marriage. Aphrodite, hear our prayers: Lord of love, lend your bright powers. Guide this pairing with wisdom, fill their hearts with tender devotion, and let them dance the love and passion of equals." He then directed his words toward the couple. "Life is given to each of us as individuals, and yet, we must learn to live together. We learn to love by being loved. Learning to live and live together is one of the greatest challenges of life – and is the shared goal of a married life."

On the Colonies, it had been tradition for a couple to crown each other with flower stems woven together into circles, symbols of unending devotion. Living among the fleet, flowers were scarce, but they had wound some spare wire into shape, and the meaning behind the tradition hadn't changed.

Lee placed Kara's crown upon her head first. "I take thee to be my wife, my constant friend, my faithful partner and my love from this day forward. I promise to love you unconditionally, to honor and respect you, to laugh with you and cry with you, and to cherish you for as long as we both live."

"I take thee to be my husband," she responded, putting his crown in place, "my constant friend, my faithful partner and my love from this day forward. I promise that I will love you unconditionally, honor and respect you, laugh with you and cry with you, and cherish you as long as we both shall live."

"May the Lords bless you and keep you," the priest told them. "May they be gracious unto you and give you peace and happiness. So say we all."

"So say we all," the small group assembled echoed. Lee leaned forward and kissed Kara.

"I guess we're stuck with each other now," he told her. She laughed.

"Oh, darn."

* * *

Several of their other friends joined them for dinner in the mess hall after the ceremony. By the end of the meal, it felt like they'd been congratulated by the entire crew. The couple finally slipped away from the crowd intent upon enjoying the fact that they'd managed to get the next twenty-four hours off. 

"Lee, where are we going?" Kara asked once she realized that they weren't heading towards his office.

"Our quarters," he easily replied. She smirked.

"You get lost, or are we taking a long way for some reason?"

"Not lost at all." A moment later, he took out a key and unlocked a door that was on their right. They were down in the area that had gotten designated as family quarters. "Tada," Lee said with a little grin as he opened the hatch. Kara stared for a moment.

"Don't even think about carrying me inside," she told him.

"Wouldn't dream of it. I have a healthy respect for your right hook." They both went inside and looked around. It was much larger than their old room, probably twice the size. The bed was actually designed for two people, as was the storage space. There was also a smaller room off to the side.

"Is that your new office?" Kara asked.

"I was thinking about just getting one set up by the CIC. Make it easier for people to find me when I'm on-duty, and harder to get interrupted when I'm not."

Kara grinned. "I like that idea."

"I thought you might."

"So this place is really ours?"

"It really is. Unless you've got some objection."

"Nope." She wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her lips to his. "So do you think we ought to…make it official?" she asked with a wicked grin.

* * *

TBC... 


	3. Z minus 8 months: Part One

Z-minus 8 months: Part One

The fleet had been lucky for the past several months – no encounters with Cylon Basestars. Code Two Alert had become the norm, and patrols had become routine. They all knew it wouldn't last, but had hoped it would last a little longer than it did.

They were now jumping on a daily basis, sometimes two or three times a day. They'd tried a couple different strategies, like splitting up when they jumped so that the fleet was in two different locations. Sixteen Vipers had gone along with the half of the fleet that Galactica wasn't with. They'd only recovered five. Predictably, those few fighters had been no match for the Basestar that had found them. That strategy hadn't been reused.

Short on pilots once again, they were working double and sometimes triple shifts in order to keep the required number of craft for a patrol in the air. Kara had been either in her cockpit or on deck during jumps for the past day. All the pilots had been forced to take stims, but it they weren't helping much, if at all.

"Galactica, Starbuck, heading for the deck," she said over the wireless as she headed in.

"Roger, Starbuck. You're clear."

It had been a long twenty-four hours, and she knew she'd only get a short break. Forcing her brain to focus on hitting her landing took just about all the energy she had left. When her Viper was brought down to the hangar deck, she removed her helmet, but just sat there for a long moment in the cockpit, trying to pull herself together. She was cold, shaking, and light-headed to a level she'd never been before, and previously she'd gone far longer than twenty-four hours without sleep.

"You okay, Lieutenant?" a voice asked, and she looked up to see that Cally was standing on the ladder down from her bird.

"I'm fine," she replied, handing the deckhand her helmet. Cally climbed down, giving Kara room to do the same. Tyrol was waiting on the ground as well, eager to get the post-flight started.

Kara managed to climb out of the cockpit, and get both feet on the ladder, but that was the last thing she remembered before blackness enveloped her, and the strange sensation of falling…

* * *

Lee looked up at the sound of a knock on his office door. "Sir?" Cally asked as she stuck her head inside. He frowned; it wasn't every day that a deckhand wound up in his office – unless something had gone wrong on deck. 

"What happened?"

Cally looked down. "It's Starbuck, Sir…"

He arrived at the Life Station in record time to see that Kara was at least conscious again, and talking with the doctor. "When was the last time you've eaten?" he man asked her.

"What day is it?" Kara dryly replied. Neither Lee nor the physician found that humorous.

"What's going on?" Lee asked, making his presence known.

"That's what I'm trying to ascertain," the doctor told him. "The Lieutenant isn't being very forthcoming."

"Kara, cut the crap." She looked up at her husband, surprised.

"Yes, Sir," she replied, although her tone wasn't any less sarcastic.

"I'm going to do some blood work," the doctor told them both. "We should know more in an hour or so."

"I'm on shift in two," Kara replied.

"You're grounded until the doc clears you," Lee corrected her. She rolled her eyes.

"I'm getting really tired of hearing that." The doctor smiled as he left.

"What happened out there?" Lee asked once they were alone.

"I'm fine, Lee."

"That wasn't what I asked."

Kara sighed. "I don't know. I just felt a little bit light-headed and then as I was getting down, I frakking passed out."

"See, that's the part that's worrying me, because you don't pass out, Kara. Have you seriously not eaten since you started flying?"

"Somebody brought some protein bars down to the deck at some point."

"You took your stims, right?"

"Yeah, Lee, I took my frakking stims, okay? I'm fine, and when that doc comes back, he'll tell you the same thing. And since once he tells you the same thing, I'm going to need to get my ass in a cockpit, you mind if I get a nap in the meantime?"

* * *

The tests wound up taking longer than the doctor had expected. And as much as Lee wanted to stay with his wife, if she wasn't flying then someone else had to, and he wound up being that someone else. By the time he'd finished back-to-back shifts on patrol, he was getting antsy as hell to hear what the doctors had found out. Kara never had come out to join the CAP, so that had to mean she wasn't as fine as she'd thought. 

When Lee arrived at the Life Station, he saw the doctor before he saw his wife. "You didn't clear Lieutenant Thrace?" he asked the man.

"No."

"Why not? What's wrong?"

"Captain…the Lieutenant is pregnant." The world turned upside down on him in that instant.

"I'm sorry, did you just say – "

"I ran the test three times. Same result."

"How is that possible? She's been getting the injections."

"We've run some diagnostics. Apparently the batches from the last two months have been contaminated."

"The whole thing?"

"Yes, Sir."

"So it might not just be Kara?" The doctor sighed.

"We've been pulling in all the pilots and deckhands that aren't on shift. So far, Lieutenant Thrace, Lieutenant Valerii, Specialist Hernandez, and PO3 Barker have all tested positive." Lee sighed. Anywhere other than Galactica, anytime other than the middle of a war, this would be good news. However, for them, it was worst case scenario.

"Do they all know?"

"Yes, they do. They've all been pulled from active duty." _As if we weren't short-handed enough already,_ he thought to himself. Both Sharon and Kara had been doing a lot of extra shifts lately – apparently too many.

"They all okay?" Lee asked. "With the patrols and the stims and everything?"

"As far as we know. We're monitoring all of them." Lee nodded.

"Thank you, Doctor." He then headed over to see his wife. Kara was turned on her side, her back to the opening in the curtain that surrounded her bed. She didn't move when Lee approached her. "Kara?" he asked, horrified to hear his voice crack. Lee sat on her bed behind her, and only then did he see the tears that were running down her face. "Oh, Gods, Kara," he whispered as he wrapped his arms around her.

"I'm sorry, Sir." She could barely force the words out.

"Frak that; Kara, you don't have a CO at the moment, you've just got a husband."

"Lee, the last thing you need is to lose another pilot."

"No, the last thing I need is you feeling like you're alone in this. It's not your fault. There's no…there's no fault, Kara. It's a baby. Our baby."

"This wasn't supposed to happen now."

"Does anything happen when it's 'supposed to'?"

"We're in the middle of a war, Lee. What are we going to do?" A small smile crossed his face.

"Apparently, we're going to be parents."

* * *

A couple days later, the shock hadn't worn off completely, but it was starting to. Kara sighed as she checked the flight schedule that was posted outside the hangar deck. "Oh, joy," she told Sharon, who was a few steps behind her. "We've got a shuttle flight in two days, but other than that…" 

"I guess it could be worse," Sharon told her. "They didn't have to clear us for shuttles."

"Forgive me if I'm not on my knees thanking them," Kara shot back.

But Sharon was right; at least they still had some options. The Specialist and Petty Officer had been barred from the deck – everything they did had the possibility of being dangerous. And Specialist Allie Hernandez wasn't handling it well.

"Can I help you?" one of the nurses in the Life Station asked when she saw the nineteen-year-old come in the door. Hernandez nodded.

"I need to speak with Major Cottle."

"He's with a patient, but – "

"I can wait." The nurse nodded.

"Okay. Have a seat."

Fifteen minutes later, Cottle approached her. "Specialist? Are you all right?"

"No, Sir. I need to speak with you." He led her to his office, and closed the door behind them.

"What's going on?"

"Sir…I need permission to terminate." The Chief Medical Officer looked at her.

"You know policy, Specialist. If humanity's going to continue, we need every life we can get."

"I know, Sir." He studied her for a moment.

"You have reservations about raising the child?"

"I just…I was having a night with some of the other crewmen, playing cards, drinking some…drinking a lot," she admitted. "It was an accident, Sir. We shouldn't have slept together, but I didn't think…Nothing was supposed to happen. I was supposed to be protected."

"I can appreciate your situation. A lot of lives have been disrupted. If you don't think you'll be prepared or you'd want to care for your child, I can make arrangements with the orphan ship – "

"I don't want to give it up," she interrupted. "I don't want it at all. This wasn't supposed to happen! If I hadn't been getting the injections and this happened, then I wouldn't have any right to complain. And if I had known…there's no way I would have taken the chance."

"I understand that."

"Why am I being forced to live with the consequences of someone else's mistake? I mean, my job, my whole career, my life…" Silence reigned for a long moment.

"You know the policy, Specialist," was all he finally said.

"Permission to speak freely, Sir?"

"Granted," he told her, even though he knew he was going to regret it.

"Frak the policy." With that, she got up and left. Cottle sighed, and then picked up his phone, dialing the number for the hangar deck.

"Is Chief Lewis on-duty?" he asked the crewman who answered on the other end. "Fine," he said when he received an affirmative answer. "Tell him to stop by Major Cottle's office once he gets off. I think we both might have a problem on our hands."

* * *

TBC… 


	4. Z minus 8 months: Part Two

Z-minus 8 months: Part Two

The civilian ships had already had to deal with people challenging the termination policy, but Galactica hadn't – until now. No one was very eager to have to deal with the issue. For the time being, the policy stood.

"You think we're making the right decision?" Lee asked his father one night when he went up to see Adama in his office. Half the ship was talking about the predicament they were all in.

Adama sighed. "It's not as though it was an arbitrary principle. Roslin had it ratified; President Rawlings is upholding it…"

"That doesn't answer my question…I think Kara would terminate if she was given the choice." Adama looked up, surprised. "She's looking at an unintended nine months - at least - out of a cockpit. For someone like her, that's eternity. She becomes a pain in everyone's ass if she doesn't fly weekly at the minimum."

"Unintended isn't the same thing as unwanted, son."

"I know, just…I'm afraid she's going to end up resenting me, or this baby, because of the circumstances. As much as I hate the idea of…not going through with this, I hate the idea of forcing her into it more." Adama was quiet for a long moment.

"I guess it wouldn't surprise you much to hear you weren't planned."

A small smile crossed Lee's face. "No, Sir."

"Well, that might not have been true for your mother. She'd hoped you would keep me planetside for a while; her timing needed some work."

"She got it right with Zak."

"Yes, she did. And I realized what I'd missed with you…give Kara some time, Lee. It's easier for her to push away her fears than deal with them, but I think she'll be okay."

He nodded. "Yes, Sir."

* * *

Life on a Battlestar could be extraordinarily boring when you didn't have anything to do. In between a few random shuttle flights or CIC duty shifts, Sharon and Kara wound up spending most of their time in the mess hall, talking or playing cards. 

"How's Boxey taking the news?" Kara asked her friend one afternoon as they started their fourth game of pyramid for the day. They never played for profit against each other, just tried to pass the time.

"Really well, actually. And he's glad that I've been around our quarters a lot more as of late. He's an amazing kid; I've been trying to keep finding books for him. He soaks everything in like a sponge." Kara laughed.

"You teach him how to play pyramid, yet?"

"No," Sharon replied with a laugh. "I'm not going to have my son gambling before he's thirteen." Kara smiled at that.

"Your son…how are things going with the adoption?"

"Everything with the civilian system is so disorganized and slow. His court guardian came this week, though. She's supposed to be putting all the final paperwork in, so we'll see. It'll probably be a few months before everything's finalized."

"I'll keep my fingers crossed for you."

"Thank you. I've been so on edge lately, wondering if something's going to go wrong, if they're going to take him away. I think I can breathe a little easier now…He wants to change his name once things are final."

"Boxman Tyrol?"

"Yep. We're supposed to be a 'real' family then, according to him. I can't argue with that, especially with the baby, too."

"This is what you always wanted, isn't it?" Kara asked. Sharon smiled.

"A family? Yeah…I barely remember my parents anymore. Growing up in the military…it was never lonely, but it wasn't a true family, either, you know?"

"Yeah."

"What about you? Is this where you imagined you'd end up?"

"I don't know…sometimes I wonder if we're crazy."

"Why?"

"Bringing children into a world like this? I mean, I know it's the only way we're going to keep going, but…Yeah, I guess I saw us having a family someday, but I never saw it happening on Galactica."

"On Earth?"

Kara slowly nodded. "Maybe…I don't know, just…not on Galactica. Not now." She looked down at the hand of cards she was holding. "Full colors," she told Sharon, unable to force much emotion into her voice. The younger of the two recollected the deck and started shuffling it.

"If we're supposed to be just sitting around for the next eight months," she told her friend, "We're going to need a new game."

* * *

"Pull the whole thing out," Cheif Petty Officer Lewis told one of his Crew Four deckhands as he inspected the Viper engine that the younger man was trying to fix. "Lost cause; we're going to have to replace it." 

"Yes, Sir." Lewis was about to move on to his next task, when he saw one of the Crew Five specialists approaching him at a run.

"Sir?" the girl asked, and Lewis was pretty sure her name was Turner. " Major Cottle wants to see you in the Life Station, Sir."

"I'm on shift, Specialist."

She nodded. "I know, Sir. I bunk with Specialist Hernandez. We found her this morning, Sir, real sick. The Doc wants to see you." Lewis swore under his breath, turning around to try and locate the most senior crewman on duty, other than himself.

" Mason!" he called to the PO-Second. "You have the deck."

* * *

By the time Lewis got to the Life Station, the CAG and Commander were there as well. Cottle was holding up a pill container for them to see. "It's a simple painkiller," he told the men. "But from her blood work, I'd say she took nearly half the bottle." 

"Is she going to be all right?" Lee asked him.

"She'll live, but she was lucky her bunkmates found her when they did." Lewis nodded. He'd have to talk to CPO Tyrol, make sure their crewmen received their thanks. "However," the doctor continued, "I'm afraid her child did not survive. The medications we had to give her…we would have lost them both otherwise." Adama slowly nodded. He looked across the room at the Specialist, who was lying on a bed with a nurse hovering around.

"We can't start gaining new lives at the price of the ones we've already got," he quietly said to Lee. "This shouldn't have had to happen…" He turned to Major Cottle. "Get someone to talk to Lieutenants Thrace and Valerii and Specialist Baker. Find out what they want to do. We can't always live by civilian policies on this ship." The doctor nodded.

"Yes, Sir."

The Adamas left and Lewis went to see his crewman. They just held each other's looks for a long moment. "They told you?" she finally asked.

"Yeah, Allie."

A nod. "Doc said I'll be cleared for work in a couple days."

"I'll put you in the rotation once you are."

"Thank you, Sir." He started to leave, but had one more thing to say.

"Just wondering, Allie – do you really think it's going to be easier this way?"

She didn't answer.

* * *

Lee went to find Kara and talk to her himself. "They're seriously rescinding the policy?" she asked her husband. He nodded. 

"In this case, yeah. I'm just not sure if it's going to make the whole thing easier or more of a mess." Kara didn't respond. "Do you know what you want to do?"

"This became my decision…when?"

"Kara, at the moment, it's your life that's being turned upside down."

"Oh, and this is nothing for you?" she shot back.

"No, it's not nothing, I just…we didn't plan for it, and since we have the option, I just want to know what you want to do."

"I'm not terminating, Lee." She noticed the color start to come back to his face.

"You're sure?" he asked one more time.

"You want me to change my mind?"

"No."

"Then stop asking. What's done is done, right? Can't change the past."

Lee smiled; he liked this no-looking-back type of attitude that she had developed somewhere along the line. "No, you can't."

* * *

Major Cottle was taking care of speaking with Sharon and Tyrol. They both came down to his office in the Life Station once they were off shift. "The commander has decided that the civilian policy on termination will not apply on Galactica in this circumstance," the doctor told them. "You are therefore being given the choice of whether or not to continue with this pregnancy." 

"What?" Sharon asked, her face halfway between a mask of shock and anger.

"The decision does not have to be immediate, and if you so choose, the procedure is non-invasive – "

The sound of a weapon being removed from its holster was the only warning they got before the first shot that was fired. Lucky for Cottle, it went wide. Tyrol grabbed Sharon, pinning her to the wall.

"What the hell are you doing?" he cried, trying to make sure he had control of the hand that had the gun. The thing that scared him the most were her eyes – he suddenly didn't recognize them.

"No one will harm this child," she said, her voice colder than ice. He was surprised to find that her strength was actually a match for his; that hadn't ever happened before. Cottle had gone to have someone call ship security.

"Sharon, you're not making any sense." He could feel the barrel of her gun brush against his arm - too close for comfort. "Frak, Sharon, stop!"

And then the marines were there, pulling her away from him. It took three of them to get her under control. Tyrol was left holding his wife's weapon and wondering what the frak had just happened.

* * *

TBC… 


	5. Z minus 8 months: Part Three

Z-minus 8 months: Part Three

"I can't believe we're actually having this conversation," Tyrol exclaimed. He, Lee, Tigh, Cottle, and Adama were in the Commander's office, trying to figure out what exactly they were supposed to do now. "Sharon's not a Cylon! You have the results from the detection tests that were done months ago – it came out green!"

"It's entirely possible that those tests were wrong," Tigh pointed out. "Perhaps Baltar really didn't know what he was doing."

"Oh, and I suppose you're going to start calling him a Cylon next," Tyrol angrily spat.

"Whether or not you want to believe it," Adama told him, "Do you have a better explanation?"

Tyrol looked away, a broken man. "She just…she…It's Sharon! We all know her. That…thing down in the brig isn't her!"

"She could have been a sleeper agent," Lee pointed out. "There have been rumors about them." Tyrol still wasn't buying it.

"This is insane! She's pregnant, with our child – how the frak would that be possible of she was a Cylon?"

"Watch yourself, Chief," Tigh told him. Tyrol tried to reign his anger back in.

"That I honestly don't know," Cottle replied. "I have a team trying to go through Dr. Baltar's research on the detector, discover why it failed."

Adama nodded. "Let me know as soon as you have anything."

"Yes, Sir."

"May I make a request, Sir?" Tyrol asked Adama. He nodded. "I'd like free access to Sharon."

"Chief – "

"Cylon or not, sleeper agent or not…She's my wife. And I believe that the woman I know is still inside of her somewhere. I can't give up on her, not yet."

Adama sighed. "Permission granted. But Chief?"

"Yes, Sir?"

"Be careful."

* * *

The walk down to the brig was possibly the longest that Tyrol had ever taken. He nodded a greeting to the officer posted inside, then entered and made his way towards Sharon's cell. She was sitting on the floor, her back to the bars, and while she'd undoubtedly heard him coming, she didn't move. 

"Sharon?" Nothing. "Sharon, look at me." Slowly, with a fluidic grace that couldn't be human, she stood and turned around.

"Hey, there, Galen," she replied, a nasty little grin on her face. "What, no kiss hello?"

"I don't want to talk to you; I want to talk to Sharon. I want to talk to my wife."

She held her arms out with a laugh. "She's standing right here, Gay."

"You're not Sharon. You're not my wife; you're not the woman I created a child with." Her eyes lost focus for a minute, but were softer when they looked back to him. Were familiar.

"Galen?"

He smiled. "Yeah. I knew you were in there." Tears were welling in her eyes.

"I didn't mean to hurt anyone, Galen, I swear. I just…can't keep control."

He'd had his fears, his doubts over the years, but they'd eventually all faded in favor of the fact that he loved her. And as much as he wanted to hate her now, he couldn't. "You're going to have to explain some of this to me," he told her.

Sharon sighed, sitting down and putting her head in her hands. It was taking all her energy to keep the Cylon in her suppressed. "I don't know how long it's been with me; I wasn't supposed to know…But all the weird things that have happened, the explosives, the open hatch, it was all this thing. I'm a person, Gay; I had a life on the colonies, and on this ship, and years of memories!"

"I know. No one's sure what's going on."

"They're going to kill me," Sharon stated.

"No."

"I'm a danger to the fleet."

"You're pregnant with a human child."

"You can only guarantee that it's half human…and that's what this thing wants," she realized.

"What?"

"It wants this baby…Gay, they have to kill us."

"I'm not going to let that happen!"

"It's the only way to make sure the Cylons don't get this child!"

"We're not going to start killing people at random out of paranoia, Sharon. We'd be no better than the Cylons at that point!" A sly smile appeared on her face, and he knew she'd lost her battle to stay in control.

"You honestly still think you're better than us?" the thing occupying her body asked, her voice like honey. "You really are pathetic." Tyrol didn't even know what to say, so he just turned and left. He didn't think he could look at her for another minute without being sick.

* * *

News traveled around Galactica fast, especially among the pilots when it concerned one of their own. "What are we going to do with her?" Kara asked Lee that night as they both got ready for bed. He sighed. 

"I have no idea. I don't even think my dad knows. According to Tyrol, the whole point of this thing being here was to have a child."

"If the Cylon detector wasn't really working, then that means we're back to square one. We can't trust anyone, and you know how bad the paranoia was on this ship the first time around."

"Yeah, I know. They're supposedly trying to figure out what went wrong, and then test all over again. Who knows what the Cylons will have messed with in the meantime, though?"

"So we start finding these hidden Cylons, and then what? Shove them out the airlock one by one? Sharon had a life, a family – Gods, 'Sharon' never really existed, did she?"

"I don't know. I don't think anything's going to be done now. They want to see if they can get any useful information about the Cylons out of her. If she and this baby are so valuable to the Cylons, then they're even more valuable to us."

"And in eight months?"

"In eight months, your guess is as good as mine."

* * *

Tyrol sat in his quarters, staring at the picture in his hands. It had been taken a few months earlier, when they'd celebrated Boxey's twelfth birthday. He, Sharon, and Boxey were smiling for the camera – he couldn't figure out how they'd gotten from there to where they currently were. 

He looked up at the sound of Boxey's door opening, and the boy left his room, rubbing at his eyes. "What's the matter, Boxey?"

"Where's Sharon?"

Tyrol sighed. "She's not here tonight."

"She's not supposed to be working," Boxey pointed out.

"Yeah, I know…Come here, kiddo." He sat down with his guardian. "See, something happened today…Sharon's not who we thought she was." Boxey frowned.

"What are you talking about?"

"There's a part of her…she's a Cylon, Boxey."

His eyes went wild with surprise. "No, she's not! She…she saved me from the Cylons!"

"She didn't know; none of us did. She was what's called a sleeper agent. Part of her…part of her is still the person that we knew, but the other part is no different from the Cylons that destroyed the Colonies."

"You're lying!" the boy yelled, starting to cry. "She's not like them, she can't be!"

"Boxey – "

"I want to see her. Where is she?"

"Boxey, you can't see her."

"She's my mom! I want to see her!"

"She's in the brig, to make sure that she can't hurt anyone, and I can't let you go down there…I'm sorry, but I'm trying to protect you. You don't need to see her like this."

"When can she come home?"

"I don't know…I don't know if she's going to," Tyrol admitted. Boxey was quiet for a long moment.

"She said she loved me," he finally whispered. "Was that a lie?"

"She said she loved me, too, Boxey. And…I've gotta believe that for the Sharon we knew, it was true."

The boy slowly nodded. "Then I believe it, too."

* * *

TBC... 


	6. Z minus 4 months

Z-minus 4 months

Lee looked up from the reports he was working on at the desk in his and Kara's quarters when the hatch opened and she came inside. He knew better than to ask how her shift had gone – she was never in a good mood after a day in the CIC.

"You been down on deck recently?" Lee asked. Kara shot him a glare as she sat on their bed.

"Why would I be on deck?"

"To check the schedule? You've got a shuttle flight tomorrow."

She raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really? Since when?"

"Since today. Figured it might help keep your sanity in check." He wasn't surprised when he got hit in the back of the head with a pillow. It was a better alternative than getting hit with her fist, so he didn't say a word.

* * *

By the next morning, though, he was wondering if the flight was really going to help. "Frak!" he heard Kara exclaim as she was getting dressed. He poked his head out of the bathroom, his toothbrush between his teeth. 

"What?" She turned around to display the fact that she couldn't get her flight suit to fasten around the little bump of her stomach. Lee couldn't help but grin.

"Oh, this is funny?" she asked.

"No," he was smart enough to say as he tried to wipe the smirk off his face. "Wear my suit; I think it's a size bigger than yours." With a loud sigh, she went to try it on. Lee finished brushing his teeth and shaving, and then went to check on her. "Well?" he asked as he came out of the bathroom.

"Barely," she replied. The sight of Kara Thrace in front of a mirror, intently studying her reflection, was enough to make him laugh out loud. The only reason they even had a full-length mirror in their quarters was because Lee was in dress uniform more often than not and appearance counted for something up in the CIC. Kara rarely spent more than fifteen seconds combing her hair out, let alone primping in front of a mirror.

"Don't worry about it too much," he told her. "This is going to be your last flight for a few months."

Kara glared. "Thanks, Lee, that's really helpful."

He shrugged. "You know what the Doc said. Nothing after the five month mark."

"Yeah, and five down means there's still four to go."

"Ooh, you did pass basic math, Lieutenant."

"You better sleep with one eye open tonight, Sir." Lee laughed.

"Maybe I'll save myself the trouble and just switch to night shift for today. All right, anyway, I've got to get dressed and get to the CIC, and you've gotta get to the shuttle bay. We'll meet up for dinner?"

"Sure."

* * *

Shuttles weren't Vipers – hell, they weren't even comparable to Raptors – but if you went long enough without flying something, as Kara had, you'd take what you could get. Adama needed to take an impromptu trip over to Colonial One, which is how Kara wound up with an unexpected flight on her hands. The commander wasn't actually supposed to be cleared to fly anything (despite a few random incidents where he'd gotten a Raptor off-ship before anyone could stop him), but Kara was more than happy to have him as an unofficial co-pilot. 

Once they arrived on Colonial One, Kara had expected a couple hours of boredom while she waited for Adama and President Rawlings to finish, but she was pleasantly surprised to find that one of Galactica's PO-Seconds, Dualla, and one of Colonial One's political aids, Billy, were hanging around.

"We were on our way to lunch, Sir," Dualla told her. "You want to join us?"

"Is the food better than on Galactica?" Kara replied with a smile.

"Marginally," Billy said. They walked through the corridors to Colonial One's mess hall, with Billy and Dualla greeting several random inhabitants of the ship as they passed by.

"You're getting pretty popular over here, Petty Officer," Kara told her with a smile. Even with her dark completion, she could see the younger girl blush.

"Yes, Sir. I guess we're going back and forth pretty regularly."

They got trays of food and found a table to sit at that was off to the side. "How far along are you?" Billy somewhat shyly asked Kara, a finger pointed in the direction of her stomach.

"Wow, you mean there actually are people in the fleet who haven't heard the whole story?" Dualla laughed at that – the whole mess was common knowledge on Galactica, and it was easy to forget that the little bubble they lived in didn't extend to the rest of the fleet. "Five months," Kara answered Billy.

"You know if it's a boy or a girl?"

"No, we don't. I didn't want to know, but Lee does – we're still fighting it out."

"I think the Commander is on the CAG's side," Dualla told her.

"Don't I know it!"

"Do you have any preference?"

Kara shrugged. "I don't know. I'd have no idea what to do with a little girl."

Billy frowned. "You are a girl," he pointed out.

"Who gets thrown in the brig for fistfights, smokes stogies, would kill for a bottle of ambrosia, and hasn't worn a dress since she started primary school."

"Okay, point taken," he said with a laugh.

* * *

The flight back to Galactica was slightly longer than the trip out, simply because of the afternoon flight pattern around the fleet. "I thank you for chauffeuring an old man around for a day," Adama told Kara as they entered the landing pattern for Galactica. 

"Trust me, I needed the air time," she replied. Adama smiled.

"Yes, that's what Lee said as well."

Kara rolled her eyes. "Did he put you up to this?"

Adama gave her a smile. "A meeting with President Rawlings needed to happen. I merely suggested that it take place on Colonial One instead of Galactica."

"I'm going to kill him…"

"He's just looking out for you, Kara. Underhanded or not, his plan did work."

"I don't want him doing any special favors."

"Who says it wasn't a favor for me? A rare afternoon with my daughter-in-law." She smiled.

"You're so full of it, Sir, that your eyes are brown." The sound of his laugher was only icing on the cake of a very nice afternoon.

* * *

Lee was also happy to see that his plan had indeed done the trick. He and Kara had a late dinner in the officer's mess, but afterwards, he still had to go finish the schedules for the following week. She wound up joining a few of the other pilots for a few card games. 

"I'll see your five and raise you ten," Crashdown told her, and earned a laugh in response.

"You don't learn, do you?" she asked her fellow pilot. She'd been cleaning house the whole night, and while Ghost, Nightsky, and Jammer had learned when to fold, Crashdown kept coming back for more.

"Yeah, I'm out," Nightsky said. "You are glutton for punishment, man." Crashdown shrugged.

"You hear that?" Kara asked as a noise somewhere in the room caught her attention.

"Hear what?" Jammer asked. She held up a hand to silence him, getting up from the table. The room was dark, but once the light was behind her, her eyes adjusted, and she noticed a familiar figure huddled in the corner.

"Boxey, what are you doing here?" she asked the little boy. He sniffled – the sound she'd heard had obviously been him crying. "I'm out," Kara told the other officers as she left the table and went to sit with Boxey. He was quiet for a long minute, his tears slowly abating, and Kara just let him finish. "Tyrol must be worried about you," she finally said.

"I don't care. I'm not going home."

"Why not?" Another long silence.

"The paperwork came today," he finally said.

"What paperwork?"

"About my adoption. It's final. They never heard what happened; I haven't seen my court guardian since right after Sharon found out about the baby." Kara sighed; the civilian system was totally inept.

"Oh, Boxey…"

"We were supposed to be a family! Why do the Cylons keep ruining everything?"

"I don't know."

"I wanted to go tell her about the papers. Galen says that sometimes he can get her to act normal, and I know I could do it, too. But he won't let me see her."

"Did he tell you why?"

"He said she's really mean when she's not acting like herself…I guess I don't really want to see her like that. I just want things to be the way they used to be."

"I think everyone does, but I don't know if it's ever going to happen. You can't run away from Tyrol, though, you know why?"

"Why?"

"Because you're all he's got left. And he's all you've got left. You guys need each other…tell you what: you can stay here with us for a little while longer, and then I'll walk you home."

"Will you teach me how to play?" he asked, indicating the group still playing cards. The conversation Kara had had with Sharon a few months earlier popped into her head.

"How close are you to your thirteenth birthday?" she asked Boxey, even as she wondered why she was attempting to respect the wishes of a Cylon.

"Two weeks."

Kara smiled. "That's close enough. Come on."

* * *

Lee wasn't sure what woke him up in the middle of the night, but when his eyes opened, he noticed that the clock said it was about 0200 hours. And Kara wasn't in bed with him anymore. 

"Kara?" he called, sitting up. The light on the desk flicked on, and he could see her curled up in a chair in the corner. "What's the matter; what are you doing?" She had her knees tucked to her chest, and he thought she looked a few shades paler than normal, but that might have just been the light.

"I'll be okay; go back to sleep," she said. Now she had his attention.

"What's wrong?" he asked, getting out of bed and going to her. He saw her swallow hard; she couldn't bring her eyes to meet his.

"I'm cramping."

"For how long?"

"Not that long." He saw her body shudder, saw her curl up a little tighter, and wondered how much she was downplaying this.

"Okay, I'm taking you down to the Life Station. Can you stand up?"

"I-I don't know." He knelt next to her, taking one of her arms and wrapping it over his shoulder.

"You've got two options," he told her. "Either put your feet down, or I'm carrying you." Kara winced, but got her feet on the floor, and Lee helped support her weight as she stood. "Okay?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I think so." They left their quarters, and Lee just hoped that it wouldn't be too late.

* * *

Kara couldn't think anyone who liked pain, but she put herself at the top of the list of people who didn't like it. She wasn't a fan of needles, either, and that included IVs, but she'd been stuck with both since arriving at the Life Station. And as much as she hated the IV, it had made the pain go away, so she couldn't complain. The drugs they were pumping her full of had left her nauseous, but at least she and the baby were going to be okay. 

It was far too easy for her to imagine how differently things could have gone that night. Despite her aversion to pain, Major Cottle seemed to think she had a pretty high tolerance for it. She hadn't even known how bad off she really was until the doctor got a look at her. Or maybe she had known, and just wouldn't let herself admit it. In either case, she'd come dangerously close to delivering her baby that night, and it would have been far too early for it to survive.

"How are you feeling?" Cottle asked as he stopped by to check on her. It was nearing morning, and Kara was pretty sure that Lee had early shift, but he hadn't made a move to leave her yet.

"Better," she truthfully told the doctor.

"That's what we like to hear."

"What's the plan now?" Lee asked the Major.

"We'll keep you on the dyllium sulfide drip for probably another twenty-four hours."

"That means keeping me here for another day," Kara deduced. Cottle smiled.

"You do catch on quick, Lieutenant. We need to continually monitor you, make sure the contractions stay stopped and that you don't get dehydrated. I'll consider releasing you tomorrow morning but no earlier, understood?" She nodded. "You'll need to rest for several days, but you can do that in your quarters. Then we'll see how you're doing at that point, and talk about the long term plan. Is that workable?"

"Yeah."

"Good. I wanted to do a view-scan of the baby, and then I'll let you get some rest." One of the nurses brought over the machine. Cottle checked the baby's heartbeat first, as had been done several times throughout the night, and it only relieved them further to hear it was still at a normal rate. The truly reassuring thing, though, was to see the tiny life on the view-scan's monitor, little limbs flailing. "Everything looks fine," Cottle told them.

"Still don't want to know if it's a boy or a girl, huh?" Lee quietly asked Kara. She gave him a tired smile.

"I don't care anymore. I've had enough surprises for a while."

The doctor smiled. "Well in that case, he just did a back-flip."

"It's a boy?" Lee asked in surprise. Cottle smiled as he got everything put back away for the view-scanner.

"Mmm-hmm. Try to get some rest, Lieutenant."

Kara rolled her eyes at the sight of the grin on Lee's face. "You're going to be insufferable, aren't you?" she asked once the doctor and nurses had left.

"Dad'll be worse."

"Mmm. Go tell him then. And go to work, and let me get some sleep."

Lee laughed, leaning over to kiss her forehead. "All right, fine. You stay out of trouble."

"I'll do my best."

* * *

After heading back to their quarters to grab a shower and change into his uniform, Lee headed up to his office. He couldn't help stopping by his father's first, though. 

"Got a minute?" he asked. Adama nodded.

"You look like hell. What's going on?"

"It's been a long night. Kara started to go into labor."

Adama looked up, alarmed. "She all right?"

"Yeah, the doctors got it stopped. They'll be fine, both her and our son."

Adama smiled. "A boy?"

"Uh-huh."

"Congratulations."

"We thought you'd be happy. Now all we've got to do is make it through the next four months."

"I'll stop in and visit Kara later."

"I'm sure she'd appreciate it. She's probably going to be sleeping a lot, but other than that, she's gonna get bored out of her mind."

"You couldn't get anyone to cover your shift?"

"I didn't try. I've been with her all night, and you know how much she loves people hovering around her." That got a smile.

"True."

"I ought to go; I just wanted to let you know what was going on."

"Thank you, Lee," Adama told him. He nodded, and shut the hatch behind him.

* * *

The Commander knew he wouldn't be able to have a very productive day until he saw his daughter-in-law. The first time there was a lull in the CIC, he headed down to the Life Station. It was hard for him to believe that the previous day he and Kara been flying together, and now she was confined to the ship's sickbay. More proof that life could change in the blink of an eye, and there seemed to be two steps back for every one forward. 

"What do you hear, Starbuck?" Adama asked Kara as he moved to stand beside her bed. She smiled.

"Nothing but the rain, Sir. Lee saw you already?"

"Mmm. I hear there will be blue ribbons around the celebratory stogies?"

"So they tell me. Just what I need, another Adama male to keep in line."

He laughed. "Indeed." Kara's smile dimmed.

"Actually, Sir…I had something I wanted to ask you. I haven't talked to Lee, yet, but I've been going over and over the idea in my head…"

"What?" There was a long pause.

"I want to name the baby Zak." Adama didn't respond. "There were a lot of things that were lost on the Colonies, but…I don't want him to be one of them. Knowing him – loving him – changed my life, and I don't think Lee and I would be where we are without him."

"Are you asking my permission, Kara?"

"Y-yeah, I guess I am. Do you think it's a good idea?"

Adama slowly nodded. "Zakary Adama…There'll be quite a story to be told when this little boy asks where his name came from."

"I know…And I'll tell him."

* * *

TBC… 


	7. Z minus 0: Part One

Z-minus 0: Part One

"What are you working on, Captain?"

Lee looked up at the sound of Tyrol's voice and saw the Chief walking across the hangar deck to the corner the CAG was sitting in. He held up the metal ring and small stone that he was working on. "Anniversary present," he told the CPO. "Or at least it's supposed to be."

"Are you trying to set that?" Tyrol inquired, pointing to the stone.

"Yeah. I got a friend to make the prongs, but the stone was something I just happened to acquire, and the two aren't exactly the same size." Tyrol smiled.

"Happened to acquire?"

"I've got my sources. Rank hath its privileges."

"Mmm." Lee opened his mouth as though he were about to say something, but stopped before any words came out. Tyrol noticed. "What?"

"Nothing. I just…forgot."

"You mean forgot that I didn't have my anniversary two months ago? Yeah, sometimes I wish I could, too."

"Have you seen her lately?"

"No. Not often…It's been getting harder. It takes a lot out of her to keep control and I just…I really don't need to see her when she's not in control."

"I understand that. She's due any day now, isn't she?"

"Yeah. And that doesn't help any…I've spent so much time trying to convince myself that this child, it's not what we'd thought about, what we'd dreamed of. It was a science experiment for the machine in my wife's head. And if it's a Cylon as well…I don't even want to think about that. Everything's turned upside down."

"How's Boxey doing?"

"He's gotten quiet…angry. At me, mostly. I just…I want him to be able to keep his memories of Sharon the way she was. I don't want the thing inside her to take them away from him."

"You're trying to protect him; he's got to understand that."

"I think he does. But it doesn't make it any easier…He wants to go live on the orphan ship."

"What?"

"Yeah. And I know that's the last thing Sharon would want, but…I'm out of ideas. I love Boxey, but Sharon was always so good with him, from day one. I don't know what to do for him anymore."

"What about letting Kara talk with him? I mean, he trusts her, and I think a friend that's not also a parent might be good for him." Tyrol shrugged.

"It's worth a shot. I'm willing to try anything at this point. How's Kara doing? Isn't she due this week, too?"

"And she hasn't let anyone forget it. She's doing okay now, though. Getting antsy, I think. But then again, I guess we all are, huh?"

Tyrol nodded. "Yeah."

* * *

Kara was more than happy to spend an afternoon with Boxey. She'd known for the past few months how miserable he was, and had been trying to help. He didn't really want to go live on the orphan ship, and still loved Tyrol, but the pain of losing his family for the second time in two years was cutting deep. And Kara finally thought it was about time to take his issues to the source; while Lee was on duty, she went down to the brig to see Sharon. 

She didn't know quite what she was expecting to find when she got to the brig; she hadn't seen the woman she'd once thought of as a friend in several months. Kara took a minute to steel herself before going inside. Tyrol had given her a few clues as far as what to expect, but it was still a shock to see Sharon. She was wearing a set of off-duty clothes, although they hadn't given her shoes. Her hair had grown out much longer in the months she'd been confined, and no one had bothered to cut it. Kara knew how concerned Cottle had been at her last few appointments that she wasn't gaining much weight, so she knew that the doctors had to be a lot more worried about how positively gaunt Sharon looked.

Two dark, glassy eyes were aimed in Kara's direction as soon as she entered the room. "Well, well, well. Long time no see, huh?"

"Yeah, I'd imagine you don't get many visitors down here."

A wicked, knowing smile appeared on Sharon's face. "Gay drops in every now and then, pathetic as ever."

"From where I'm standing, it's highly amusing that you're calling someone else pathetic."

"So what brings you down to my corner of the ship? Come to see if all your worst fears were true?"

"No, I came to talk."

"That right?"

"Yeah."

"Weren't you just a little bit curious, though, Kara? Wondering how you were all deceived so easily and for so long. I mean, your best friend, your gal pal, was actually one of the very things she spent every day trying to destroy. Now that's irony for you, huh?"

"My 'gal pal,' as you put it, never existed. She was a very elaborate lie. I know a thing or two about lies; I've told more than a few in my lifetime. I know how much damage they can do. And I see the damage you've done every time I look at your thirteen-year-old son and try to make him believe that somehow – somehow – everything's going to be okay."

Sharon's eyes were suddenly softer, and her posture showed the exhaustion that one might expect her to be feeling. "I never wanted to hurt Boxey," she said, her voice quiet. "I never wanted to hurt anyone. I'm sorry, Kara; I tried to get control sooner, but it's getting harder…It knows it's almost time."

Kara shook her head in surprise. "It really is like you've got a split personality. Tyrol said, but…I didn't believe him."

"How bad is Boxey doing? Galen won't tell me anything…he doesn't even come anymore."

"Can you honestly blame him?"

"No…I didn't ask for this, Kara. All I want is to be normal again, to have the life I thought I was living."

"You really think that's possible?"

Sharon looked away. "Do you remember all our afternoons in the mess hall, just talking about the future, our kids growing up together? They're only going to be a couple days apart in age; we were so sure they'd grow up being friends."

Kara's eyes narrowed as something finally dawned on her. "It was you, wasn't it? It wasn't an accident that the injections got contaminated. It was you."

"I didn't know I'd done it until after…and then, what did it matter? Wouldn't change anything. You'd already made your choice, and I…I couldn't have changed anything." Sharon closed her eyes, putting a hand to her head as though she'd suddenly gotten a migraine. "You should go; I won't be able to stay in control much longer."

"Boxey's always wondering if you ever really loved him."

A tear escaped from Sharon's eye. "Yes. Very much. Don't let him doubt that, please. Whatever happens…"

Kara nodded. "I won't."

Sharon sat up, opening her eyes, and the look in them was completely different. "You actually believed her, didn't you?" she asked with a laugh. "Okay, here's million cubit question: can the master con artist tell when she's being conned?" Kara didn't answer. "What's the matter, Kara? Don't like games anymore?"

"Every good player knows when to fold." That got another laugh.

"Oh, if only you could," Sharon said as she turned away from the bars. She lay down on the cot that was in the little cell, one hand gently rubbing the naked skin of her protruding stomach as she hummed a lullaby to herself. Kara felt a chill go down her spine.

"You're frakking insane," she shot before turning and walking out of the brig. She just hoped it wouldn't be taken as a compliment.

* * *

Sharon had been right; the Cylon in her head did know that she was close to giving birth, Sharon just didn't know how close. Tyrol was home with Boxey that evening when there was a knock on their hatch. The Chief wasn't expecting Tigh to be his visitor. 

"I need to speak with you," the Colonel told him, then spared Boxey a glance. "It's confidential," he added.

"Boxey, go work on finishing the next chapter in your book." The boy nodded.

"Yes, Sir," he told Tyrol as he headed for his bedroom. The CPO turned to the XO once the door closed.

"What's going on?"

"When was the last time you saw Sharon?"

"It's been a few weeks." Tigh nodded. "Why?"

"She's gone into labor. The Doc thought you'd like to be notified." Tyrol nodded.

"Thank you, Sir. She's at the Life Station?"

"No. It's a matter of security. Cottle's with her; she'll get whatever she needs. The rest of the ship cannot be put at risk, though."

"The many over the few."

"Something like that…Our kind over theirs."

"Thank you for the information, Sir." Tigh nodded and left. Tyrol sat in the chair by the desk, trying to make sense of the mess of thoughts and emotions in his head.

"Can I come out now?" a little voice interrupted a few minutes later, and he turned to see Boxey.

"Yeah, buddy."

"He was here about Sharon, wasn't he?"

"Yes, he was."

"Are they going to do something to her?"

"No…the baby's going to be born soon."

"Soon like tonight or soon like in a day or two?"

"Soon like tonight, probably. At least for her sake, I hope so."

"So…why are you still here?"

"It's complicated."

"I'll go."

"No, you won't." Boxey sighed.

"Didn't you say that sometimes when you talk to her about me or the baby she'll act like herself again?"

"Yeah."

"Well…if she is acting like herself, then I don't want her to be alone right now."

"Yeah," Tyrol finally said. "Me, either."

"So you're going to go?"

He nodded, putting his shoes back on. "Be in bed by 2200, all right?"

"Yes, Sir."

* * *

Tyrol didn't know what he'd expected to find when he arrived in the brig, but everything he'd imagined didn't do justice to reality. It had been far too many weeks since he'd seen his wife; she had probably lost about twenty pounds, and she'd been pretty small to start with. She looked utterly exhausted as she paced back and forth in her cell, obviously hurting, wearing one of the gowns from the Life Station. Tyrol tried not to let his eyes linger on the bit of blood that had stained the blanket on her cot. As difficult as she was to see, they would have done something if there was a problem. They would have allowed her to be taken to the Life Station. Right? 

Sharon grabbed the bars with a cry, barely able to stay on her feet as the pain peaked. Cottle was just standing there, watching, along with a couple nurses. "Galen," she managed to gasp when she saw him, reaching a hand out to grab his.

"Stop," the Major told him before their fingers could make contact. "XO's orders: no one gets within arm's reach. She's been flipping back and forth without warning."

"Why haven't you given her something for the pain?" Tyrol asked.

"Don't want it," Sharon told him as she tried to force her breathing back to a normal pace. "I can't get control if I'm drugged up; my head needs to be clear."

"How much longer?" Tyrol asked Cottle.

"I'd say she's advanced first stage, and she'd been progressing pretty quickly. The Colonel wants her tranquilized for the second stage."

"What?"

"No one's been in that cell with her being conscious since we put her in there," Cottle told him. "Don't expect that to change anytime soon."

"I can understand the risk, but she's not an animal!"

"Really, Gay?" He turned back to Sharon to see her eyes were hard, a grin on her face like the cat that ate the canary, despite the pain she had to still be in. "'Cause that's not what you said that time in the storage room by the deck." His uneasiness only served to make her laugh more, an eerie sound that had the same effect as fingernails on a chalkboard.

But then the pain returned, and, unprepared, she wound up falling to her knees with a scream from the intensity. Wild, tear-filled brown eyes told him that Sharon had control again. Apparently the 'toaster' in her head was a smart one, and it wasn't sticking around for the not-so-fun parts of being in a human body. Tyrol couldn't stand hearing her cries. Ignoring Cottle's protests, he crouched next to Sharon's cell.

"Shar," he quietly said to get her attention, offering his hand to her. She gripped it tight, and for that one moment, things were they way they always should have been: the two of them together. It had been eight months since he'd touched her, and that was eight months too many.

Her contractions seemed to become a never-ending wave, just dropping down before building back up again. Cottle heard her breath catch, heard her moans and cries get deeper. She was close. "Contact the Colonel," he quietly told one of the marines that was standing guard.

"Yes, Sir."

"Can you hold her still?" the doctor asked Tyrol as he prepared the injection he was going to give her.

He nodded. "I think so." He'd underestimated how much strength it would take, though, forgetting who he was actually fighting against. Once Sharon's body had gone limp, a marine came and unlocked the door to her cell.

"Help me get her on the cot," Cottle said, and Tyrol obeyed. "She just had her hard part in all of this. Now we have ours."

Tigh showed up about a half hour later. Sharon was still unconscious, and Tyrol was practically standing guard along with the marines while the doctor and nurses took care of her.

"How's she doing, Major?" the Colonel asked.

"It won't be much longer."

Tigh looked to Tyrol. "You sure you want to be here?" he asked.

"There's no way you're going to get me to go, Sir."

He sighed. "You understand that if…"

"I understand."

A pause. "And Sharon."

Tyrol slowly nodded. "I understand, Sir."

They both looked up at the sound of a tiny, mewling cry, which was then quickly followed by a louder one, then another and another. Cottle stood and turned around to face them, holding a little bundle of moving limbs and noise. "It's a girl," he announced.

"Do you have what you need in order to scan her?" Tigh asked. The doctor nodded.

"But I would prefer to do this at the Life Station."

"It would be all over the ship in about a nanosecond, and this is already complicated enough. Can you safely do it here?"

"Yes, Sir." He handed the baby, who was slowly starting to calm down, to one of the nurses, and they got everything ready. Blood from her umbilical cord could be used to do the scan instead of having to stick her with a needle. They had decided against bringing the scanner's thermo-nuclear warhead anywhere near Sharon, so the other nurse took the sample to one of the science labs in order to analyze it. They'd then have to wait an hour or so for the result. Sharon received another tranquilizer, just to be on the safe side.

Tyrol watched as Cottle and a nurse checked out his daughter. There was no other way for him to think of her; from the moment he'd seen her, she was his. He didn't know what he was going to do if her test was positive. He had tried to detach himself, but that was proving to be near impossible.

"I-is she healthy?" he couldn't help but ask. Cottle offered him a smile.

"Yes. Remarkably so, considering her mother's physical condition. She's a little small, but otherwise…" They all looked up as the other nurse returned, holding a file for the doctor. The tension in the room was palpable as Cottle read through the information inside.

"There wasn't any sign of the Cylon characteristics," he finally said.

"You're sure?" Tigh asked. The doctor looked through the data once more, and nodded.

"Yes. She's completely human."

"Do you have any idea how that's possible?" the Colonel inquired. Cottle shrugged.

"Perhaps we are the dominant trait. There are a few more scans I want to run," he told Tyrol, "But since she doesn't seem to pose any danger to the fleet, once she has a clean bill of health, she's all yours."

Tigh offered him an expression that could only be described as smile – a small one, but still. "You want to hold her, Chief?"

"Yeah, more than anything." Cottle wrapped the baby a bit more snugly in a blanket, and then handed her over to her father. Everyone was so preoccupied with the little life that they didn't notice two dark eyes watching them – eyes that should have been closed due to heavy sedation.

Tyrol was in awe as he held his daughter; she looked just like Sharon, and he wondered if that would come back to haunt him in the end. He knew what was going to happen to his wife; it was just a matter of time, now.

"Let's get her to the Life Station," Cottle kindly told him, and Tyrol snuck one glance in Sharon's direction before turning to leave. The fact that she was looking back made him stop dead in his tracks.

Tight noticed the expression on the CPO's face and turned around, but it wasn't fast enough. Before the marine by her cell could react, Sharon had pulled his weapon from its holster, rendered him unconscious with one strike, and was aiming for her husband and/or daughter.

"Sharon, don't!" Tyrol automatically shouted. She faltered, eyes closed, her grip relaxing slightly and her aim lowering. "Don't," he repeated, quieter. "You've gotta get control. This is everything you wanted, Shar: she's healthy and human. The Cylons' plan didn't work." Tigh was deciding whether or not an attempt to disarm her would work at that point. As it turned out, he wouldn't need to.

Sharon's eyes opened, the tears in them about to spill. "Gay, I'm sorry," she whispered. He nodded.

"I know."

The gun clattered to the floor outside the cell, and Tigh kicked it away. Sharon fell as well a moment later, her body convulsing. The seizure lasted a good minute, and Cottle checked her pulse once the tremors began to fade.

"She's still alive," he told Tigh, "But if you want her to stay that way, I need to get her to the Life Station."

* * *

TBC... 


	8. Z minus 0: Part Two

Z-minus 0: Part Two

When Sharon opened her eyes, the first thing she noticed was the silence. Not in the room around her – the Life Station was bustling with activity – but in her head. For the first time in months, her mind was quiet. There wasn't anyone else competing for control over it. She was alone.

"Do you know where you are?" a voice asked, and she looked to see that Major Cottle was standing by her, checking the machines she was hooked up to. It was also at this point that she realized she was shackled to the bed.

"Yes…It's actually me, Sir." He studied her for a moment, seemingly accepting that.

"Has it gotten easier to gain control?"

"No – I mean…I didn't have to fight for it. I just…woke up. I can't feel it in my head anymore." That threw the doctor for a loop.

"You're certain?"

"Yeah…do you think it's gone dormant again?"

"That's one possibility."

Sharon sighed. "Wouldn't that be a laugh?" she sarcastically asked. "Even a diffused bomb still has to be dismantled."

"I want to do one more test," Cottle told her.

"For what?"

"The Cylon scan."

Sharon frowned. "Why?"

"I did a few neural scans when we first brought you in. I have a hypothesis that I'd like to test."

* * *

Sharon had a lonely and boring wait for the test to be completed. She didn't know where Tyrol or their baby were, and since no one came to check on her, there was no one to ask. When Cottle finally returned, her heart sank when she saw that Commander Adama was with him. 

"I understand what you have to do, Sir, but…could I be allowed to see my family first?"

"They should be here soon," Adama replied. To her great shock, Cottle began to remove the restraints on her wrists.

"What are you doing?"

"I thought you might be more comfortable without these, Lieutenant."

"I haven't been called by my rank in eight months."

"Hopefully it won't be that long before you're back in uniform," Adama told her.

"I don't think I understand, Sir." He smiled.

"We're still putting the pieces together as well."

"Your scan was negative, Sharon," Cottle explained.

"It's been negative before when it shouldn't have been."

"Yes, but that was operator error, rather than a malfunction with the test. I ran the scan twice; there's no doubt you are human."

"How is that possible?"

"My best guess would be that you were born that way. Born, not made. From the scans that I have, it's most likely that whatever it is the Cylons did to you was done at a very early age, probably no older than two."

"No, that's not possible I – " And then it hit her. "I can't remember when I was little."

"Most of your memories prior to your time within the fleet never actually happened."

"But I could remember things before. Why can't I now?"

"The reason why your scans are coming up negative now is that you seem to have managed to 'upload' the Cylon information in your head without dying in the process. I'm still not sure myself how you managed it. But anything that was part of that Cylon program is now gone."

"There's no way to reconstruct it?"

"The human mind is a complicated thing, Lieutenant. You should be grateful yours hasn't been scrambled."

"I am, I just…I want to know why they did this to me. What purpose did I serve?"

"We already know that they have multiple copies of the same biocylon model," Adama said. "Perhaps you were a template."

"That's a very scary thought, Sir…Commander, I know there's no making up for it, but I wanted to apologize for the things I've done – "

Adama waved a hand, silencing her. "We all have pasts," he told her. "They are what they are. We can't be faulted for things that were not of our own choosing. Get some rest, Lieutenant. Your family's going to need your back in top shape."

"Yes, Sir."

* * *

She should have gotten a nap while she had the chance, but her mind was too busy. The world had gone into a tailspin on her again. Cottle was definitely concerned with how dehydrated, malnourished, and underweight she was, so he wasn't letting her out of the Life Station until he was satisfied with her test results, but the fact that she was going to be released was something she found utterly amazing. 

"Feel up to some company?" she heard a voice ask, and turned to see one of the nurses. "Your husband and children are here."

"Yeah, absolutely." Tyrol was holding the baby, whom she assumed was still nameless, and quickly came to give her a kiss.

"I've been waiting a long time for that," he told her.

"I never thought it would happen." Sharon then noticed that Boxey was still standing off to the side by himself, staring at her. "Can I get a hug out of you?" she asked him. "My Lords, you've grown up so much."

He carefully approached her. "Galen said you're just you again."

"Yeah."

"Does that mean you can come home?"

"Once the doctors are done with me, yeah." That didn't seem to help his concern any. Sharon knew how different she must have looked from the last time he'd seen her.

"She's been through a lot, kiddo," Tyrol reminded him. "But she's going to be okay. Promise." He finally accepted that and gave her a hug.

"I missed you," Boxey whispered in Sharon's ear.

"I missed you more."

"While you're doling out hugs…" Tyrol said, and handed his daughter to his wife.

"She's so small," was the first thing Sharon noticed.

"The Doc said she was doing okay, though."

"Have you named her?"

Tyrol smiled. "I've been a bit preoccupied. Trying to keep from getting shot, making sure you were still alive – little things." Sharon looked away.

"Gay, I – "

"Don't. It's all over. You already apologized, and it wasn't really your fault. I'm just glad that you were able to stop yourself in time."

"So am I. The Doc thinks that's how I forced the Cylon to upload – trying to hurt you two was the last straw." He laughed.

"Well, that's good to know."

"In any case she still needs a name. You have any ideas?" she asked Boxey. He shrugged.

"Something happy. I mean, she's why we're back together now, right?"

"He has a point," Tyrol agreed. "We've got another chance at a future."

"Hope," Sharon suggested. The guys smiled.

"I like that," Boxey said. "How about you?" he asked his sister. "You want that to be your name?"

"Is she talking back?" Tyrol teased him. The boy smiled.

"Yeah, she said that it's fine."

Major Cottle happened to catch a glimpse of the scene from across the room, and shook his head with a smile. If anyone had told him the previous day that this was going to happen, he would have had them committed, but life had a way of surprising them, and he'd take a good surprise any day.

* * *

Going into premature labor had not been an experience Kara wanted to repeat. Apparently, the Lords hadn't been listening to her, though, because the same thing had happened only a month after the first time. She'd been good about her medications and trying to avoid stress, and had finally made it to the 36 week mark…and the 37, and the 38, 39, and 40. Now, week 41 was looming on the horizon, and she had decided that she wasn't a fan of the universe's sense of humor. 

"Do you want the good news first or the bad news?" Cottle asked her when she came in for an examination.

"Good," Kara replied.

"Your little guy's healthy."

"That's it?"

"I'm afraid so. And even that's part of the bad news. He is healthy, but the fact that you haven't delivered and he's still growing means that he more than likely weighs nearly nine pounds right now. Believe me when I say that the prospect of you remaining pregnant doesn't excite me any more than it excites you." Kara snorted. "Furthermore, your blood pressure has dropped low enough that I'm getting concerned for your health. It wouldn't be advisable to keep waiting for this to happen the natural way."

Kara sighed. "So more needles and more medications. I think I'm actually getting used to them."

"Well, we can't have that. I'd like to start inducing your labor now. If your blood pressure is still a problem after the delivery, we'll have a lot more options for medicating you than we do now."

"Fine."

"Would you like me to put a call out for Captain Adama to join you?" Kara shook her head.

"He's on patrol. And they're too short-handed enough to pull him off it without a dire emergency. I'll be okay for a few hours."

"Are you sure?"

"No," Kara replied with a smile, "But I don't have a lot of choice in the matter."

* * *

When Lee got back from his patrol, he expected to find Kara resting, as she'd been for the past few days, in their quarters. Discovering that the room was empty was a bit of a surprise. He knew that she'd had an appointment with Major Cottle, but if she was still there, that could only mean that something was wrong. 

"Can I help you?" one of the nurses asked as she saw him come into the Life Station. She then realized who she was talking to. "Oh, Captain Adama. Your wife has been waiting for you."

"Is she all right?"

"She's fine," Cottle told him as he approached as well. "This way." He led Lee back to where Kara was lying on a bed. The IV attached to her arm and other assorted monitors on her did nothing to lower his anxiety.

"Relax, Lee," Kara told him.

"What's going on?"

"Apparently the little guy isn't so little anymore, so the doc wants him born ASAP and who am I to argue with that?"

"They're giving you medications to start your labor?"

"Yeah. I'm seriously beginning to feel like a pin cushion."

"Why didn't you have anyone tell me?"

"What good would it have done?"

"I would have known what was going on!"

"Yeah, and you would have been stuck out on CAP freaking out while I'm sitting here wondering whether or not your freaking out is going to get you killed. This way was easier for both of us."

Lee sighed. She had a point, but that didn't mean he had to like it. "How are you doing?"

"Really looking forward to this being over with."

He sat next to her, smiling. "I hear that."

* * *

It took another twenty hours, though, before it was over. Zakary William Adama weighed in at eight pounds, ten ounces, which didn't surprise his mother at all. Kara's blood pressure was still acting crazy, and so between the exhaustion that the past day had brought and the medications they were giving her, she was out cold pretty quickly. 

Lee took Zak from his mother once she'd fallen asleep for the second time after Adama had stopped by for a visit. There was one chair set up in the corner of the room, and he sat in it, cradling his surprisingly wide-awake son. "Hey, big guy," he whispered to the baby. "Happy Birthday. Things were kinda crazy before; I don't know if we ever got properly introduced. I'm your dad. You know: the guy your mom kept cursing at whenever you decided that it was playtime in the middle of the night. She takes sleep very seriously, so I already know we're going to have a fun time with 0300 feedings. Your mom's one of the most amazing people I know, though. We're lucky to have her; you and me both. You'll learn courage from her, and determination. And she'll probably teach you how to play pyramid before you learn to read.

"Hmm, what else do you need to know…You already met your grandfather. He's going to spoil you rotten; I can see that coming already. You'll pick up a lot of things from him, too. I did. He's why I'm a pilot, and who knows? Maybe you'll be one too. But I promise you don't have to be, okay?" Zak yawned in response. "All right, that's settled. One last piece of business, because I think your mom had the right idea – a nap sounds awfully good. Galactica's a good ship, but she's a Battlestar. And your mom and I are pilots, so that means…it means we can't promise that we'll always be here. But we'll do our best, and no matter what, we'll always love you."

The baby's blue eyes had closed, and weren't reopening. Lee put him down in the little basinet that was by Kara's bed, and then retook his spot beside her. Sleep came easy; they'd had a long few days.

* * *

They both slept the rest of the afternoon and all night, only waking up when Zak needed to be fed. By the next afternoon, though, Lee could no longer ignore the work that was waiting for him up in his office, so he left his wife and son alone for a few hours in the Life Station. Not that Kara minded. She still didn't handle hovering well. 

"You up for some visitors?" At the sound of Sharon's voice, Kara looked away from Zak, who was sleeping in her arms. Her friend was in the opening of the curtain that surrounded Kara's bed, holding Hope and with Boxey at her side. The boy gave Kara a wave.

"Yeah, sure," she replied with a grin. "How are you doing?"

"It's been a hell of a week," Sharon truthfully said.

"Yeah, I hear that."

"How about you?"

"Still sore. At least they've gotten my blood pressure back to normal; supposedly I'm getting out of here tonight." Sharon smiled.

"Then the real fun begins."

"Yeah. So is something going on with Hope, or did you just come down to visit?"

"Just came to visit. Boxey thought she and Zak should be properly introduced." Kara smiled as she noticed her son's eyes opening.

"Well, you're in luck," she said, "Because bright eyes over here just decided to wake up." She was sitting cross-legged at the head of her bed, and carefully laid Zak down in front of her. Sharon put Hope next to him and playfully made the newborn wave.

"You guys have got a built-in best friend," she told the babies. "You probably don't know how lucky you are." Kara offered her own friend a smile as Boxey started playing with Zak and Hope.

"I…wanted to apologize," she told her.

"For what?"

"Some of the stuff I said…was pretty harsh."

"And the stuff I said wasn't?"

"But it wasn't really you."

"From your point of view, I don't really see how that matters. I probably would have done the same thing, if I was in your position. Honestly, don't feel bad about anything. According to Galen, I'm being hard enough on myself to cover about ten people."

"How are things with you two?"

"It's like we're doing an Aerean hot coal walk," Sharon admitted. "He's being so careful around me, and I'm being so careful around him. We've lost so much time already; neither of us wants to screw anything else up."

"I can understand that."

"I mean, don't get me wrong – I'm so happy to have Hope and to be back with Boxey and Galen, I just…we have so much to work out, I don't even know how we're going to do it. I don't even know who I am, Kara; I think that's the scariest thing."

"What do you mean?"

"All of my memories were fabrications. I have no idea where I'm from. I don't even know what my real name was, or who my parents were, or what they were like. And now, I'm never going to know. That's the worst part. Every link to my real identity died on the Colonies."

"I know who you are," Kara told her. "You're a Lieutenant in the Colonial military. You're a Raptor pilot, and a damn good one at that. You're CPO Galen Tyrol's wife, and you're Hope and Boxman Tyrol's mother. Out here, now, does anything other than that really matter?"

Boxey had heard his name mentioned often enough to be paying attention to them. Sharon gave him a smile, ruffling his shaggy hair. "No," she told Kara. "Nothing."

* * *

TBC... 

I'm still working on the next few chapters; hopefully my muse will allow me to get something done soon. The next several chapters will be more focussed on Kara/Lee than the previous few. I just felt like if I was going to do a future fic, I needed to come up with some sort of explaination for what happens to Sharon. Please let me know what you think so far.


	9. Z plus 3 months

Z-plus 3 months

Kara didn't even bother denying that she was not one of the easiest people in the galaxy to awaken. Everyone knew it was true. When she'd lived in the bunks, someone had often been throwing something in her direction in order to get her to turn off her alarm in the morning. Lee, on the other hand, was usually an early riser, and was able to do so with just a wickedly-accurate internal clock. Even if he didn't have to get up for an early shift, he knew when Kara did, and she found him much nicer to wake up to than a blaring alarm. Especially when they were trying not to also wake up Zak.

"Kara, get up," she heard Lee's sleepy voice telling her, cutting through the dream she was having. "It's 0500; if you're going to go running, get up." She groaned, but complied, rolling out of bed and going to check on Zak. He was still sound asleep, one little thumb hanging out of his mouth.

Kara pulled on her standard PT clothes – shorts, double tank tops, and her running shoes. The shoes sorely needed replacing, but she had no idea where she was going to find some among the fleet. She closed the hatch behind her as quietly as possible, and stretched out in the hallway before starting off at a jog around Galactica's decks. She had only recently gotten back to running, having given it up after her first bout of preterm labor with Zak. Considering the health problems she'd had, Cottle had wanted her to wait a little bit after his birth before she started again.

As she got up to the command deck, she saw Adama in the corridor, heading towards the CIC. "What do you hear, Sir?" she asked with a grin. Adama returned it as she slowed to his pace.

"I really did miss seeing you in the mornings," he told her. "I'd gotten used to it."

"I've missed it, too. My times are wretched beyond belief."

"I'm sure you'll fix that in no time."

"Doing my best, Sir."

"So, first day back in the cockpit?" Kara nodded, her smile widening.

"Yep. I've got a date with my Viper for early shift."

"Enjoy."

"You know I will."

* * *

After she finished her run and little bit of time in the weight room, she headed back to her quarters. Zak was due for a feeding, and then she needed to shower and get ready for her shift. Lee was staying home for the morning with the baby, and then Kara was going to stay with Zak while Lee got some work done in his office. Schedule planning was a little more difficult now, and they knew they weren't going to see very much of each other for the time being, but it was still more than worth it. 

Sitting in a chair in the corner of their darkened quarters with Zak in her arms, Kara just watched the baby while he ate. His eyes were a brilliant blue, even in the dim light cast by the small lamp on the desk, and Kara could easily get lost in them. His eyes were always so curious, so wide. She wasn't sure if they were going to be able to handle him once he learned how to walk and talk. Already, he'd sometimes get this look on his face that frighteningly reminded Kara of herself with some kind of trick up her sleeve. He was looking more and more like her by the day, too; his initially brown hair was lightening in color. Lee found it amusing – he'd had lighter hair as a child, like his mother, but it had wound up being the same color as his father's. Zak seemed to be the exact opposite. Kara wasn't sure if taking after her was a good thing or not.

Once the baby had finished and fallen back asleep, she laid him back down in his crib and headed into the bathroom for her five-minute cold shower; she was saving the hot water for that evening. She thought she heard Zak crying at one point, but the sound didn't last long so she figured that Lee had calmed him. She got on some basic off-duty clothes, ran a comb through her hair, and then pulled on her flight suit. It felt good to be wearing it again.

The sight that greeted her when she reentered the bedroom made her smile. Lee was lying in bed, asleep, with Zak, also asleep, on his chest. They made an adorable pair.

Kara leaned over Lee, gently kissing him. "Mmm?" he mumbled as he woke up. "Are you leaving?"

"Yeah. I'll be back around 1330."

" 'Kay."

"There's a bottle ready for Zak, but he should be good for a few hours."

"All right."

"Was he crying before?" Kara asked.

"Yeah. Probably just got lonely; he settled down pretty quick."

"You sure you guys are going to be okay?"

Lee smiled. "We'll be fine. You're going to be late."

"I've got a little bit of time."

He handed Zak to her, smiling knowingly. "Say bye to your mom," he told the baby, "So she can quit worrying and go to work."

"I'm not worried," Kara shot, as though the idea were preposterous.

"Mmm-hmm. Then get your butt on deck." After only a moment's hesitation, she handed Zak back and headed out the hatch. Lee just shook his head with a smile as he settled back down in bed with his son.

"Your mother's hilarious," he told the still-sleeping baby. "But that's one of the reasons why I love her."

* * *

Kara knew something was up when, on the walk to the hangar, she saw one of the other pilots pop out of a hiding spot behind a bulkhead and go running for the deck. However, she wasn't quite prepared to arrive on deck and see a large banner reading, 'Welcome Back, Starbuck!' being hung on her Viper. 

"Okay, whose idea was this?" she called to the pilots and deckhands that were within earshot.

"Guilty," Sharon admitted, stepping forward. "But everybody helped." Her own first day back in a cockpit had been a couple weeks earlier.

Kara smiled. "Well…thank you, to everyone. Now get your asses in the ready room; morning briefing's in five minutes."

"Yes, Sir!" they all chorused. Kara saw Tyrol standing nearby.

"She flight-worthy?" she asked him, indicating her Viper.

"Of course. Try to bring her back in the same condition as when you took her out."

"No promises," Kara replied with a grin.

"No, of course not…It is good to have you back, though, Lieutenant."

"Gee, Chief, I think that little girl of yours is making you go soft."

"Yeah, well, don't let word of that get around."

Kara laughed, turning back towards her fighter. She knew she had to go do the briefing, but it had been a long time since she'd been within arms length of her Viper. She ran a hand along the nose as she made her way over to the ladder and climbed up, just to check things out. A smile crossed her face when she got up to the cockpit and saw what was sitting on her seat – a stogie, tied in a blue ribbon. A little note was attached as well:

I TOLD YOU I'D SAVE YOU ONE. –L

* * *

TBC... 

AN: If you don't get the little note at the end, it's referring to events from the epilogue to this story's prequel, Destiny.


	10. Z plus 26 months: Part One

Z-plus 26 months: Part One

It wasn't all that often that Kara or Lee took Zak down to the deck, and even rarer that they took him any closer than the second story platform overlooking the hangar. But, when nothing major was being done as far as maintenance and a group was already out on patrol, sometimes one of them would take the toddler down to see the Vipers. He was developing a fascination with them, which they blamed on Boxey. The fifteen-and-a-half-year-old had already gotten approval to start taking basic flight once he was sixteen. Combat flying and Vipers would have to wait until he was eighteen, but so far that hadn't curbed his excitement any. And Zak idolized the teen.

"Viper!" the little boy told his father as Lee took him down onto the deck, pointing to one of the fighters.

"Mmm-hmm, that's Daddy's Viper."

"Me fly?"

"Not for a long, long time." Zak stuck his lip out. "Sorry, buddy, but I promised your mother that before you were even born. We've already got one hotshot pilot in the family; don't need two."

"We already have two," Kara corrected him as she joined them, having just finished the quick post-flight maintenance she and Phoenix had been doing on her Viper. "What we don't need is three. Hey, there, Junior Cadet," she teasingly greeted Zak. He raised a hand to his forehead to salute her; the boy was destined for the military.

Zak wasn't finished with his father, yet, though. "You and me fly?" he persisted, pointing to the Viper.

Lee looked to Kara. "Is Tyrol around?"

"No, why?" He just smiled, and holding his son, started up the ladder to his Viper.

"You've got ten seconds to look around," he told the toddler once they got in the cockpit.

"I'm counting," Kara called to her husband. "One…two…"

"So you want to fly, too, huh?" Lee quietly asked his son. Zak nodded. "Do Daddy a favor? Take your time at learning."

"Ten," Kara declared, and Lee climbed down. He handed Zak to his mother.

"Are you actually off-duty now?" he asked her. She should have been done an hour earlier, but then got suckered into fixing her fighter.

"Yeah. How long are you going to be at your office?"

"I don't know. I'll meet you for dinner at least, okay?"

"Yeah."

* * *

Zak definitely was one of the most active children Kara had ever known. They'd given up on trying to make him take afternoon naps, and every evening, as it approached his bedtime, they'd get him washed up and in pajamas and then just let him run around their quarters and play until he tired himself out. It made all of their lives easier not to try and contain his energy. 

As Kara looked up from the book she was reading, she noticed that Zak was running around the room in circles, his arms outstretched like wings. The little boy smiled when he noticed that he'd caught his mother's eye.

"I a Viper, Mama!" Zak exclaimed as he continued to toddle around. It hadn't been a surprise at all when he'd taken an interest in flying – they would have been more surprised if the child of the two best pilots in the fleet hadn't been attracted to Vipers and Raptors and flight. But his all-out obsession at the tender age of two was reminding his mother a little too much of his namesake.

Zak wasn't paying much attention to where he was going, and wound up tripping over one of his shoes, which he'd left in the middle of the room. Seeing him do a face-plant into the floor made Kara cringe. Lee was sitting at the desk in the room, looking over the schedule for the next week, and was therefore a lot closer to their son than she was. He picked Zak up and set him back on his feet fast enough that the little boy decided he hadn't hurt himself adequately to warrant tears. Lee playfully inspected his son, pretended he really was fixing up a Viper.

"I think you've got a malfunctioning navigation sensor again, huh?" he asked, trying to explain the fall. Zak nodded; he knew fighter parts better than he knew the alphabet. "Hmm, let me see what I can do…" The little boy screamed with laughter as his father tickled him. "All right, there. I think that's better."

"Or you could just get the junk out of your flight path," Kara added, retrieving his shoes.

"You all set?" Lee asked Zak.

"Uh-huh."

"Viper 02-Zulu is away!" And with that, Zak was off and running once more. Lee turned back to his paperwork with a smile. He knew his son had changed him, and all for the better.

* * *

About a half hour later, Zak came to a stop in the middle of the room, and looked up at his mother with sparkling blue eyes he could barely keep open – it was time for bed. 

"Okay, say goodnight to Daddy," she told her son as she picked him up.

"Night-night."

"Goodnight, short stuff."

"Be finished with that paperwork by the time I get back," Kara told Lee, only half joking. He laughed.

"Yes, Sir!"

Zak was already halfway out by the time that Kara got him tucked under his blanket. "Night, mister man. Sweet dreams."

"Love you, Mama," he replied as he drifted off. She switched off his light and headed back out into her and Lee's room. As 'ordered' he was putting away his work.

"He asleep?"

"Out cold," Kara replied.

"So is it playtime for us now?"

"Only if it's a quick game. It has been a long day, and if I'm staying with Zak in the morning, I need to get some sleep."

Lee smirked. "Ah, yes, and since I'm only out on CAP, I don't need the rest, right?"

"Exactly."

* * *

There was one huge downside to training new fighter pilots on Galactica as opposed to doing it back on the Colonies – there were no simulators. Trainees were in the cockpit from day one, and therefore, day one usually didn't go so well. 

"Watch your nose, nugget," she told the pilot-hopeful that she was out on the training course with. At the start, landings were the most difficult skill most of them could imagine, especially combat ones.

"Relax, Mom; I got it," she heard Zak reply, only he wasn't the two-year-old she'd put to bed that night, but a teenage hotshot that was having trouble lining up correctly in the approach pattern.

"Keep an eye on your speed – you want a hard landing, not a fireball." She was trailing him in her own fighter, although she wasn't going to do as hard of a landing as his. No sense in making the knuckle draggers fix two sets of divots if they didn't have to. "Zak, you're coming in low; get your nose up!" He was trying, but it just wasn't working. His Viper was going all over the place. "Forget it; wave off," she told him, turning sharply to go around Galactica's starboard landing pod instead of through it. Over her shoulder, however, she could see through the canopy that Zak hadn't followed suit.

"I can do it, Mom," he protested.

"Damnit, Zak, wave off! That's an order!"

But he wasn't listening to her anymore. He just barely managed to clear the bottom of the opening for the deck, but his nose was still low. It hit ground first, and considering how fast he was coming in, it was no surprise that the Viper went cart-wheeling end over end until it smashed into the flight deck wall. What little there was left of the fighter burst into flames.

"Zak!"

* * *

Kara shot up in bed, breathing as though she'd just done her morning run of Galactica's decks at a sprint. To her relief, she saw that she was in her quarters, not a fighter. 

"What's the matter?" Lee sleepily asked as he woke up as well. Kara didn't answer him, getting out of bed and going to check on Zak. He was sound asleep, curled up in a ball with his blankets thrown off his body. "Kara, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," she finally replied, getting back in bed. "I'm fine; go back to sleep." Lee knew he wasn't going to get anything out of her that she wasn't willing to say, so he turned over and obeyed. Kara, however, laid there awake for the rest of the night. It wasn't a dream she'd forget easily.

* * *

TBC… 


	11. Z plus 26 months: Part Two

Z-plus 26 months: Part Two

Usually, Kara and Lee tried to work their shifts so that one of them was always with Zak. When that wasn't possible, they had a long list of friends around the ship that were always willing to baby-sit. The next day, Lee was on early shift, and Kara was on mid. While she was working, Lee was supposed to be taking a shuttle over to the Pan Galactic Liner 2086 with Zak. There were still very few children on the Galactica, and therefore, the Life Station didn't keep a supply of all the immunizations that were required. Sharon had taken Hope to the Pan Gal ship the previous afternoon for her vaccinations. The little girl wasn't a fan of needles and had a history of getting air-sick, but the experience hadn't been too traumatic. Kara knew that Zak would be too enthralled with his shuttle flight to pay much attention to the fact that he had to get a shot. He'd only been off Galactica once, and had been too small to remember it.

"Are you sure you want to take him yourself?" Kara asked Lee as she walked with them down to the shuttle bay. "We can all go tomorrow; I'm off." Something was bothering her; she just couldn't put a finger on what it was. Lee, however, was smiling, amused by her concern.

"Kara, relax. We'll be fine. Right, short stuff?"

"Right!" Zak answered, although his mother knew he had no idea what he was replying to.

"Now," Lee told Kara, "Get going, Lieutenant, before I have to write you up for being late to your shift."

"Yeah, sure, Sir." But she headed back towards the hangar bay.

Galactica had its own shuttles, but there were also a couple that were based on other ships that made circuitous routes of the fleet during the day. They could accommodate about twenty passengers, and the midday flight that day was full. Zak's eyes were glued to the window once they'd boarded. His little mouth formed a perfect 'O' once they arrived on the flight deck and then moved out into open space.

"You like that?" Lee asked him.

"Viper!" Zak exclaimed, pointing out the forward windows, and sure enough, he'd sighted down the CAP that was also leaving Galactica.

* * *

Kara and Hyper were the Viper pilots that afternoon, while Jammer and Lonestar had the Raptor. "Is that the 1330 shuttle?" she asked Jammer over the wireless. He laughed. 

"Well, either that, or the 1530 shuttle is really early."

"You gonna wave, Lieutenant?" Hyper asked as she watched the shuttle make its way towards the Pan Galactic Liner.

"Watch it, you smartasses," Kara shot back. "I'm married to the guy that picks your duty shifts."

Hyper chuckled. "Yes, Sir. Shutting up, Sir."

CAPs were definitely not the most interesting way to spend a few hours. The view of the rather odd fleet of ships was nice, but they'd had the same view almost every day for the past four years – it had gotten old. "Anybody up to steeple-chasing with the refinery ships?" Lonestar suggested.

"Would you write us up for it, Starbuck?" Hyper asked Kara. She grinned.

"Let's keep things interesting – I'll only write up whichever one of you it is that loses."

"Isn't there a regulation against gambling while on-duty, Sir?" Lonestar asked.

"Like steeple-chasing isn't also against regulation?" she shot back.

"Contact," Jammer's voice broke in to their little conversation, and they all got down to business. "Galactica confirms – Cylon Basestar. They're launching Raiders."

"Frak," Kara muttered. "Galactica, Starbuck. We could use some back-up out here."

"Roger, that. Alert fighters are being launched." As they headed away from the fleet to engage the enemy fighters, Kara noticed a few flashes out of the corner of her eye as the civilian ships started jumping. Jammer and Lonestar were already on their way back to Galactica – a firefight was no place for a minimally armed Raptor. Kara winced as a few shots got closer-than-comfort to her right wing.

"Okay," she muttered to the attacking Cylon, which of course couldn't hear her, as she lined up and sprayed some fire at it. "Somebody obviously hasn't informed you of the rules – I get to hit you, not the other way around."

She and Hyper were soon joined by four other Vipers and were given reassurances that a few more pilots were getting set in the tubes. They were responsible for holding the Raiders off for another five minutes until the rest of the civilian ships could get away. Kara just hoped they could all make it through five more minutes.

"I just lost an engine!" she heard Hyper call out.

"Punch it for home; everyone's almost clear," Kara told him. They laid down some cover-fire to let him get away. "Nobody get stupid on me out here," she warned as she saw one of the pilots getting awful close to being tailed by a Cylon. "There better be ten fighters landing on deck when we're done."

"Viper squadron, all civilian ships are away," the launch officer's voice came over the wireless a few moments later. "Return to base; we'll jump upon your arrival."

"You heard the man," Kara told the other pilots. "Let's go." Galactica's port-side guns were blazing, giving them all some cover as they came in. Kara made sure that Hyper had made it back to the deck, and as soon as she heard eight other Vipers come down behind her, she got on the wireless.

"Galactica, Starbuck, all Vipers have been recovered." Ten seconds later, reality began to warp as the ship jumped. Once they came through, the fighters were moved down to the hangar deck.

"How bad did you get my bird beat up this time?" Tyrol asked Kara as he came over to her Viper. She grinned as she removed her helmet and climbed down.

"But Chief, if I didn't get a few dings and holes in your birds, what would you have to do all day?"

He snorted. "Yeah, Lieutenant. I'm always looking for extra work to do."

"I think she's still flyable," she continued their banter.

"Well that's a refreshing change from you."

"Isn't it, though? Is there another Viper available if she's not?" Kara asked him. "I've gotta debrief the gang real quick, and then we'll need to get another CAP back in the air."

"You can always take your husband's bird." Kara shrugged as she walked away.

"Whichever one works," she called back.

* * *

"Attention on deck," Hyper told the pilots that were assembled in their seats as Kara entered the ready room. They all got to their feet. Kara didn't wave them back to their seats – they had some business to deal with first. 

"Raise your hand if you think you screwed up somehow out there," she told them. They all looked at each other, but no one's arms moved. Kara grinned. "Okay, raise your hand if you think that I think you screwed up somehow out there." Everyone's hands went up. "Now that's more like it! At ease." The other nine pilots sat down.

"They're called combat landings, guys, key word being 'landings'," she said as she stood at the front. "It would be good if you actually managed to stay on the deck after a bounce or two, not four or five or six. If our lives weren't depending upon us jumping as soon as possible, half of you would have gotten a wave-off. If you think you've gotten rusty on this particular skill, feel free to join the nuggets for my next training session and we'll work on it. Also, what's rule number one?"

"Don't frak up?" Killjoy guessed.

"Okay, fine, what's rule number two?" This time there was silence. "Don't freeze. And yes, I'm aware of the complexity involved in not freaking out when you've got a Raider on your tail. But it's a skill that comes with experience, and being able to keep your cool will probably end up saving your hide…On that note, who wants to do a patrol/damage investigation? Any volunteers?"

"My bird's apparently bust," Hyper told her.

"Yeah, you stay; have fun dealing with the Chief."

"I'll go," Dodger told her. Jammer and Lonestar were going back up with the Raptor.

"Excellent. In that case, you're all dismissed."

* * *

A half hour later, they had a patrol back in the air, and circling Galactica and inspecting the Battlestar's wounds. Luckily, since they hadn't been hit with any nukes, the exterior damage was pretty minimal. Once they'd finished reporting in, they started making their rounds of the rest of the fleet. 

"Somebody needs to teach these guys how to fly in formation," Dodger joked. "Every time I'm out here, the ships are in a different order. Seems like Dradis is the only way you could actually keep track of them all."

"Well, then, Lonestar, is everyone present and accounted for?" Kara asked the ECO. She didn't like how long it took him to answer.

"No, Sir," he finally replied. "I can't find one of the commercial passenger ships."

"Check again."

"I already did. Twice." Kara swallowed hard.

"Which ship, Lonestar?"

"Pan Gal Liner 2086, Sir. It's not with the fleet."

"Galactica, Starbuck," she said over the wireless, and everyone could hear how strained her voice was. "We're missing a ship on Dradis out here." There was no reply. "Galactica, do you read?"

"We read you, Kara," Adama's voice came over the system, and that only served to bring her closer to tears.

"We confirmed that all civilian ships made the jump," she told him.

"No one was left behind," the commander agreed. "Most likely their FTL navigation malfunctioned. We're putting together Raptor search patrols."

"Request permission to join the patrols, Sir?"

"Permission granted. Maintain your post until we have a replacement sent to join the CAP."

* * *

Kara didn't even remember getting her Viper back to the ship. Even though there was no such thing as an auto-landing on Galactica, her mind was definitely on autopilot as she brought her bird down to the deck. The next thing she knew, the canopy was being pulled off, and one of the deckhands was standing beside her cockpit, reaching for her helmet. She took the thing off, but didn't let go of it – she'd be putting it back on soon enough. 

Once she'd climbed down from her cockpit, she saw Adama standing off to the side, silently waiting for her. She walked over to her father-in-law, eyes flashing with a temper she was barely holding in check. "Why?" she asked. "Why didn't someone tell me? You had to have known the moment we cleared the jump that they were gone."

"I sent a crewman down," he said, his voice quiet. He'd expected her anger and knew it well. "He didn't find you before you went back out on CAP."

"I'm the frakking squadron leader – how hard am I to find?"

"You know I wouldn't try to keep it from you." Her mouth opened, another quick reply about to fly out, but the tears beat the words to it, and she put a hand over her face, turning away, so he wouldn't see. Pilots didn't cry, certainly not on deck, and most especially not if they were named Lieutenant Kara Thrace.

"We're going to find them," Adama told her. "You understand me, Lieutenant?" Kara nodded, bringing herself to a textbook perfect attention stance.

"Yes, Sir."

* * *

TBC… 


	12. Z plus 26 months: Part Three

Z-plus 26 months: Part Three

They had ten systems to search. Each one took three days of round the clock Raptor patrolling to finish scans. Working out the math, with six Raptors it would take fifteen shifts over five days in order to complete the search. And that was only if everything went exactly according to plan, which rarely if ever happened. After two days, they'd fallen behind due to the Raptors needing servicing and the difficulties in the scheduling of both CAP and search patrols with the limited number of pilots on the Battlestar. There was no such thing as a single shift anymore, not until the Pan Gal Liner was found.

"Galctica, Raptor 323, requesting permission to launch," Kara said over the wireless system of the Raptor she was flying in with Sharon.

"Roger, 323, you are clear," the launch officer replied. "Good hunting."

Before bringing the Raptor off the deck, Sharon turned slightly in the pilot's seat to look back at her friend. She was worried about her. While most of them had been flying double shifts and possibly catching a bit of sleep in-between, Kara had been going for the past two days straight. Sharon hadn't even seen her eat anything other than a protein bar that someone might toss in her direction as she walked across the deck from a Raptor that had just come in to another one that was on its way out. Kara was acting-CAG now, and although no one had said it yet, they knew that pretty soon the 'acting' would get removed – the search wasn't going well.

"Let's go," Kara said, and Sharon snapped out of her thoughts, turning back to the controls.

"Do you have the jump coordinates set?" she asked once they'd cleared Galactica.

"Ready when you are," Kara replied.

"Then start the jump clock. Five…four…three…two…one…" Reality bent as they moved to the next star system. Kara had actually begun to get used to the feeling of jumping, she'd been doing it so often.

"Beginning scans," Sharon told her once she'd recovered from the move. "So far, I'm not detecting any incoming." That was the good news. Making sure they'd beaten the Cylons to their search area was always top priority. Then they started looking for the Pan Gal liner.

The system was divided into sectors, each about the size of their Dradis limits. Over the next few hours, they moved from one sector to the next, scanning.

"Sweep eighty-five is negative," Kara reported a couple hours later. Sharon sighed.

"Sweep eighty-six is negative." They'd finished with that system and had come up empty once again.

"Setting coordinates to return to the fleet," Kara said, her voice hard.

"We're going to find them," Sharon told her. It was the mantra that everyone kept repeating. Kara didn't reply; the statement had lost all of its comfort value about thirty-six hours earlier.

"Ready to jump on your mark."

* * *

When Kara came in from her eighth straight patrol the following afternoon, one of the deck hands had a note from the Commander ordering her to take a shift off. They still hadn't found anything. 

Kara forced herself to eat a plate of food from the mess hall, trying not to think about how Zak would be making a mess with the pasta dish if he was there. She'd intended upon going back to the deck and helping with maintenance, but now that she was out of the cockpit, the adrenaline was wearing off, and she realized how exhausted she was. If Adama hadn't yanked her off the line, she would have needed to start taking stims.

She headed down to her quarters, and opened the hatch, telling herself that she'd get a four hour nap before heading back to work. Kara had to stop herself from calling out to Lee from habit, letting him know that she was home. There was no one to call out to, her brain needed reminding. She was alone in their quarters, and she swallowed hard in an attempt to keep the tears at bay. The desk was littered with some of Lee's paperwork, including a halfway finished schedule for the week that was about to start. The book he'd been reading was lying on their bed, a scrap of paper marking the page that he'd been on. A couple scribble drawings that Zak had made were lying in the middle of the floor; she'd been working on the pictures with him the morning before the Liner had disappeared. Their quarters were frozen in time from that morning, and Kara couldn't bear to be in them for another moment. She turned, shutting the hatch behind her, and walked back down the hallway.

* * *

"Beginning sweep fifty-three," Lonestar reported to Jammer as they flew one of the Raptor search patrols. 

"Beginning sweep fifty-four," the pilot replied. They both watched their Dradis screens as they covered the search area. Nothing, nothing, and more –

"Contact!" Lonestar called as a blip appeared on the screen.

"Is it the Liner?" Jammer asked, turning around in his seat. The ECO watched the screen as the radar tried to identify the object.

"Oh, frak," he muttered. "No. Multiple contacts, Cylon Raiders." Jammer killed the scanners and made the Raptor do a quick U-turn. Lonestar started setting up an FTL jump back to the fleet.

"In case you weren't aware," Jammer called a few moments later, "A Raptor can't outrun Raiders, so it would be really nice if we could jump sometime soon!"

"Ready to jump on your mark," Lonestar told him. The Raptor disappeared just in time to avoid the missiles that were being shot at it.

It reappeared amid the Colonial fleet, and Jammer instantly got on the wireless. "Galactica, Jammer. We've got a problem!"

* * *

Everyone knew that the search operations were racing against the clock – the longer it took, the better the chance that the Cylons would find the defenseless liner, and the better the chance that the Cylons would find the rest of the fleet again as well. Galactica's Raptors were also in danger – if the Cylons discovered the fleet while they were out patrolling and Galactica had to jump, the Raptors would all be left twisting in the wind. It wasn't something that anyone wanted to consider, but these were the thoughts that filled Commander Adama's mind as he sat in his office, reading over a few reports that one of the crewmen had brought him. 

They had held their present location thus far in case the Pan Gal Liner managed to make its way to the correct coordinates. If the fleet jumped once more, then the liner might never find them again, and that was a bitter pill to swallow. So they would stay as long as it was reasonably safe to do so, and continue searching until they either found the ship or…he didn't want to linger on the or. They were going to find the ship.

A knock sounded on the frame of Adama's open hatch. Tigh was standing in the doorway. "We just heard back from one of the Raptors. They came across a Cylon patrol." Adama got up from his desk, re-fastening the top of his uniform jacket.

"The Cylons saw them?"

"Apparently they barely made it back here."

"Damn."

"It's only a matter of time before they find us, now. They can triangulate our position using our last location and the Raptor's."

"That still leaves a few different options they'll have to check out."

"So far we haven't had the best odds when it comes to gambling with them."

Adama sighed. "We jump now, and the chances of us finding that Liner decrease exponentially."

"I know, Sir…the President already has the civilian ships spinning up their FTL drives. They're just awaiting coordinates." Adama didn't reply. "What do you want me to tell them, Sir?"

"The Cylons haven't found us yet. As long as there's a chance the Liner's still out there, we're not leaving."

* * *

There was one small upside to Galactica always having more pilots than they had fighters – there was almost always an empty bunk available somewhere, and Kara took advantage of it in order to get a nap. She got a shower as well, and forced another meal down her throat before heading back to the hangar deck. She was doing a CAP instead of a search patrol, which wasn't her preference, but it was the only way she could fill the schedule. 

Everybody knew that she wasn't in a screwing-around kind of mood. The other CAP pilots were choirboys in the ready room during her briefing. Since all the Raptors were out searching, they had four Vipers going up to patrol the fleet. No one asked about steeple chasing or a flyby for Galactica's observation deck or anything else other than going out and getting the shift over with as quickly as possible. The tension in the fleet was palpable; they all knew that an attack could only be a moment away. All of the ships were pulled in close to the Galactica to make protecting them easier.

Kara noticed out of the corner of her eye a couple flashes that indicated the Raptors had returned to check in. They'd been ordered to report back every hour to make sure that Galactica was still at its present location. If they returned to find the fleet was gone, they all knew where to go next in order to meet back up – as long as the Cylons didn't blow them out of the sky first.

The Raptors disappeared again, once they'd made their reports, and Kara couldn't help her curiosity. "Galactica, Starbuck."

"Go ahead, Starbuck."

"Did the search patrols report anything?"

"That's a negative."

"Roger."

They weren't going back to the system where the Raptor patrol had run into the Cylon Raiders. All they could do was hope that the Liner wasn't in that system and move on. They were in enough danger already without purposely putting themselves in more. Kara knew that Adama had to be catching flak from the President about his decision to stay, but she knew that her father-in-law would never leave Lee behind if he could help it. The fact that over 1000 other lives were hanging in the balance legitimized the Commander's reservations about jumping away.

Little flashes alerted her to the fact that another hour had passed and the Raptors were returning. She counted the six little bursts of light spotted around the fleet – and then seven, and eight, and nine…

"Galactica, Starbuck: we've got company out here!"

"I'm reading our six Raptors and…twenty Cylon Raiders," Phoenix told her from his spot in one of the other Vipers on patrol.

"Frak, is that a Basestar?" Killjoy asked his fellow pilots. Sure enough, another blip had appeared farther off on their Dradis screens.

"Starbuck to all Raptors – get your asses on the deck!" Kara called over the wireless.

"Alert fighters are being deployed," Galactica's LSO told them all. "Civilian ships are beginning their jumps." Kara flipped her Viper around end-over-end to go take on the Raiders, and the rest of her group followed suit. She tried to keep her head in the game, forcing away the thought that this was the end – as soon as Galactica jumped, 1,467 lives would be subtracted from the fleet's population count, and she would be alone again.

* * *

Sharon walked onto the hangar deck and looked around, trying to locate her CO. She finally spotted Kara sitting in a corner against the wall, a clipboard in hand. "Sir?" she quietly asked as she approached. They were both off-duty – it was the middle of the night – but that didn't matter at the moment. 

"I've gotta get this done," Kara told her without looking up.

"What's 'this'?"

"It's the schedule. I gotta finish it before shift ends and get it up to Tigh."

"I think he'll understand if you're late…Have you slept more than a couple hours in the past few days?"

"Sleep wastes time that I could be doing something else. Right now, there's a helluva lot to get done."

"Kara, you can take some time to adjust. You're not going to do anyone any good if you burn yourself out. Slow down and think."

"No!" she said, looking up. "No, because if I'm not working, if my brain actually switches over, then I'm going to…I'm going to realize they're gone, and then I really won't be any use to anybody." Sharon was frozen in a shocked silence for a long moment.

"I'm so sorry," she finally said, but Kara shook her head, motioning for her to stop.

"I need to get the schedule done." So Sharon nodded and got out of her way.

* * *

TBC… 


	13. Z plus 26 months: Part Four

I've got a paper to get done tonight, so that means that I'm posting this next part sooner than usual. And no more evil cliffhangers – I promise! 8-)

* * *

Z-plus 26 months: Part Four 

Kara had never asked to be Squadron Leader, and she certainly never asked to be CAG. It was just another stark reminder of what she'd lost.

"Attention on deck," Crashdown told the early shift pilots as Kara came into the ready room the next day.

"As you were," she replied, standing at the front of the room. "Me, Boomer, Crashdown, and Hyper are up first. Watch your landings, everyone; the LSO's not in a good mood this week. Next week's schedule will be posted this afternoon. If there are no further questions: Dismissed." Everyone began filing out. Sharon hesitated a moment before approaching her friend.

"Kara, are you sure you're okay for this? Phoenix already said he'd cover for you."

"I'm fine," she shot back. "Go get your preflight done." Sharon nodded, and left her alone.

Phoenix was waiting outside of the briefing room. "Does she want me to fly?" he asked Sharon.

"Nope, says she's fine. I guess she will be, as long as nothing happens on patrol."

"And if something does happen?"

"Fighter pilots with nothing left to lose are usually the best out there – or the most dangerous."

* * *

Fortunately, the patrol was completely routine – no sign of Cylons. After they landed, Kara got the new schedule posted, and was checking things out on the deck when one of the pilots approached her. "What, Lieutenant?" she asked him. 

"You put me on nights, Sir."

"And?"

"I haven't worked nights since the first month after the attack. Nights are for rookies." Kara looked away from the clipboard she was holding, eyes flashing.

"I'm going to try and dumb this down for you, Lieutenant, okay? We have thirty Vipers. We have twenty-six – We have twenty-five pilots. There are three shifts a day, requiring a minimum of eight people on each. Can you find eight pilots from the two squadrons that wouldn't beat the crap out of you for trying to call them rookies?"

"No, Sir."

"I didn't think so. It's my job to fill the schedule, Lieutenant. If I'm in a good mood, I'll try and make sure that no one has more than two shifts back to back. What are you guessing my mood is right now?"

"Nevermind, Sir." He quickly left, joining the group of pilots that were waiting for mid-shift. Imagine his surprise when one of them gave him a smack upside the head. "Ow! What the frak was that for?"

"Are you deficient?" Riddle, who was the new Alpha Squad Leader, replied. "You're gonna start in on her about schedules now? The Lieutenant just lost everything, and you're worrying about having to work nights?"

"Maybe you haven't noticed, but we're in the middle of a war: people die all the time. Frak, they're probably the lucky ones."

Riddle shook his head. "Get off the deck."

"What?"

"I said get off the deck! We'll cover your shift somehow. I don't need someone with an attitude like that as my wingman. We'll talk later."

"Way to go, Riddle," Deadbolt told him once the pilot left. Riddle shook his head.

"I've still gotta explain that one to the CAG. It's not gonna make her day any better."

* * *

Kara didn't have much hope that the day was going to get any better. By the end of it, she still couldn't force herself to go back to her oh-so-empty quarters, and so she wound up involved in a card game in the officer's mess, instead. And, as the game progressed and tensions rose, she was lucky that Crashdown was there to keep her from cleaning another pilot's clock and winding up in the brig. 

Adama found her in the CAG's office a few hours later, sitting at the desk with a dark-glass bottle in her hand, staring off at nothing. "Give me the bottle, Kara."

"Why?"

"Because Lee wouldn't want to see you like this."

"You didn't get the memo? Lee's dead, Sir."

He swallowed hard; that had been cold, but considering how drunk she appeared to be, it wasn't all that unexpected. "Give me the bottle," Adama quietly repeated. With a shrug, she got up and stumbled over, handing him the already-empty container.

"Happy now?"

"Let me take you home."

"Home? What home? A half empty-bed? My son's empty bedroom?"

"Kara…"

She picked up the first thing she got her hands on – a container of writing utensils – and flung it across the room, getting little satisfaction from the sound of it breaking. It wasn't enough; an entire bottle of ambrosia couldn't get her drunk enough to forget, so something else had to hurt as badly as she was hurting or she felt like she was going to explode. Books, clipboards, a lamp, the chair, and a few other assorted items all met their demise at her hands. Adama just let her do it, let her get the anger out. When she finally collapsed to her knees in exhaustion, he held her while she cried. She hadn't let a tear fall since the Pan Gal Liner had been written off the previous day, but now it seemed like she couldn't stop.

"I always knew he might leave me one day," she whispered. "I never thought he'd take Zak, too."

"I know," Adama whispered in her ear. "I know, Kara."

The tears finally slowed, and he helped her to her feet, and then led her down the corridors towards her quarters. She was too tired to fight him, and was barely still awake by the time he got her to lie down in bed and pulled a blanket over her. "You're going to make it through this," he whispered as she was overcome by sleep. "I promise you that."

Adama knew she'd be out for a while, and fully intended upon staying with her for the night, but not even an hour later, he heard on the overhead: "Commander Adama, please report to the CIC." After promising himself that whatever was going on, he wouldn't let Kara wake up alone, he headed for the ship's command center.

* * *

Kara slowly opened her eyes. The previous night slowly came back to her in trickles, and she inwardly groaned at the thought of having to clean up Lee's office. 

_No,_ she corrected herself. _It's not Lee's office anymore. My office._

As her mind slowly made its way towards true consciousness, a bit of warm weight against her body finally registered, and she looked down to see her tiny light-brown-haired son, fast asleep, his little arms wrapped around her. Even more shocking, Lee was sleeping beside her.

"I've finally lost my mind," she whispered to herself.

Knowing she had to be hallucinating, she started to get out of bed, debating whether or not to try and find Adama, or just get down to the Life Station. However, her movement awakened Lee, and she absolutely froze when she saw his clear blue eyes open. He just smiled. "Gods, I wondered whether or not I was ever going to see your face again."

"You're not really here," she whispered, unable to stop the tears that were welling in her eyes. "I-I'm dreaming."

"No, Kara." Lee wound his fingers through hers. "I'm here."

She shook her head. "The chances of the Liner finding us…"

"I know the odds," Lee told her. "Our FTL was offline for a while, but we've been jumping every hour for the past day, trying to check out all the possible targets that the fleet could have gone to. I've got to tell you, I don't think I've ever been happier to see Galactica before."

"We searched for you for days. We didn't want to jump, but the Cylons found one of our patrols."

"I know, my Dad told me all that last night. I'm still so amazed that they never found the Liner. I guess the Lords were watching out for us; we were sitting ducks for a while there."

"Your Dad's seen you?"

"Mmm-hmm…What exactly did you do to my office?"

A laugh and a sob escaped at the same time. "I'll help clean up; promise."

"You got that right."

Zak stirred between them, having finally been pulled from sleep by their voices. He smiled when he saw his mother was awake, crawling farther up the bed to wrap his arms around her neck. "Missed you," he whispered.

"I missed you, too, mister man. You don't know how much I missed you."

"Can we have breakfast?"

Kara laughed. "Yeah, are you hungry?" Zak nodded. "Well then I guess we'll have to go eat. How about you go get some clothes out, and then we'll get you washed up and dressed and then we'll have breakfast." Zak climbed down and headed for his room. Lee pulled Kara into his arms.

"So…" he said.

"Mmm?"

"Next time we take a little trip off ship, how about you come with us?"

* * *

TBC… 

Of course I couldn't actually kill them. 8-) Lee's too cute for that. We are starting to approach the end, though. If you haven't already, please leave a note to let me know what you think. And THANK YOU to everyone who already has. Reviews are really easy ways to make a frustrated college student's day a little brighter.


	14. Z plus 7 years

Z-plus 7 years

"Zak, come and get your shoes on right now or I'm leaving without you," Kara called through their quarters to her son. He appeared in the doorway to his bedroom, a grin on his face.

"You can't leave without me. It's my birthday."

"We'll give all your presents to Hope." That got him moving.

"Is Grandpa still coming?" he asked his mother as he tied his shoes. They were having a party for both Zak and Hope, halfway between their two birthdays.

"Yeah, he and your Dad are going to meet us in the mess hall."

"And they're in uniform, too, right?" Kara couldn't help but smile. They'd managed to find a dress uniform that was almost small enough to fit Zak – he was still growing into it – and, much to his parents' amusement, he loved wearing it for any and all special occasions.

"Yes," Kara told her son, "They've been in the CIC this morning, so they're in uniform, too."

"Good. Then we'll look the same."

"Mmm. Are you ready to go now?" Zak nodded.

"Yes, Sir!"

* * *

By the time they got to the mess hall, Tyrol, Sharon, Boxey, Hope, and the youngest member of their family, three-year-old Evan, were already there. "Zak!" Hope squealed, jumping up and running to hug him. Kara rolled her eyes with a smile as she looked to Sharon. 

"You would think they hadn't just seen each other yesterday," she told her friend.

"Anybody hungry?" Tyrol asked the kids. Calling in a few favors had enabled them to get some real food for the occasion instead of rations.

"I am," Hope told her father.

"Definitely," Zak agreed.

"Me, too," Evan piped up from his place in his mother's arms.

"But we can't start without Dad and Grandpa," Zak protested, remembering that not everyone had arrived.

"Did I hear my name?" The little boy spun around to see that Lee and Adama were walking into the mess hall. With a grin, he saluted his grandfather. "At ease," he told Zak.

Hope grabbed her friend's hand, dragging him over to the table where they had the food set up. "You're not a real officer, you know," she told him.

"But I'm gonna be," he shot back. "I'm gonna be the best fighter pilot there ever was. Even better than Mom and Grandpa."

"Oh, what? I don't get thrown into that mix?" Lee asked his son.

Zak smiled. "Okay, you can be third."

"That's my boy," Kara told him, laughing at the put-out look on her husband's face.

* * *

The food wasn't stellar, but it was better than usual, and the children hadn't ever known anything else. They'd even managed to find a little bit of what passed for cake on the battleship. Zak and Hope's favorite part, of course, was presents. Zak watched over his best friend's shoulder as she opened her gift from her parents. 

"Wow!" the little girl cried when she got the lid off the box. Inside were pad of paper and several different colors of paint, along with a few brushes. Hope had developed an interest for art early, and nearly everyone in the crew had at least one of her sketches or paintings. Pencils and paper weren't too hard to come by, but paints were another story.

"We thought our quarters could use some new decorations," Sharon told her. "You think you're up to the challenge?" Hope nodded.

"Absolutely."

Zak looked up as he heard his grandfather say his name. He got up and headed over to the table where Adama was sitting. "Yes, Sir?"

"I have something to give you; I think you're old enough for it now."

"What?" Adama pulled the object from his pocket, and gave it to his grandson. Zak examined the two bits of metal that were in his hand.

"Dogtags?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Lieutenant Junior Grade Zakary Adama. Were these my uncle's?"

"Yes, they were."

Zak studied them a little harder. "Why are you giving them to me?"

"Every pilot has them." Zak grinned.

"I'm not a pilot, yet, Grandpa."

"But 'yet' is the key word, isn't it?"

"Yes, Sir." Adama took the chain and put it around the little boy's neck.

"May the Lords keep you safe whenever you wear these," he told his grandson. Zak regarded the plates of metal again.

"Don't worry," he said with a little smile, blue eyes shining. "I won't die." The nearly-seven-year-old gave his somewhat-startled grandfather a hug, and then scampered off to rejoin his friends.

Kara sat down beside her father-in-law, handing him a drink. "He knows?" Adama finally asked her. She slowly nodded, watching her son play-fight with Boxey.

"He asked me how Zak died, and I could never lie to him. I promised you that I wouldn't. So he understands how important he is to all of us…In the months after the funeral, I never imagined all this would be possible. I mean, if anyone had told me before the holocaust that Lee and I would wind up together, I would have punched them out." Adama smiled. "But here we are…"

"The best things in life aren't always the ones that you plan on," he told her. Kara smiled, picking her own cup up off the table.

"I'll drink to that," she replied. Adama brought his glass to touch hers. They both watched as Lee joined in with Boxey and Zak, slinging his son over his shoulder and carrying him around the room as Hope demanded her friend's release. "Lee and I have one more present for Zak," Kara said after a long moment. "I don't know whether or not he's going to like it, though." Adama regarded her carefully. 

"When are you due?"

"Seven months."

He nodded. "I saw the request for you go off the injections."

Kara sighed. "Tigh said that he would keep it quiet."

"He did. I just like to know what's going on with my crew. Medical requests catch my attention."

"Mmm."

"Congratulations. I always thought Zak was going to be an only child."

She laughed. "Yeah, so did I. Still not exactly sure how Lee talked me into it…He said he wants a girl this time. Like he's got any say in the matter."

Adama smiled. "Are you going to find out ahead of time?"

Kara shrugged, taking another sip of her drink. A little grin appeared on her face as she turned back toward him. "What's one more thing left to chance?"

* * *

Only one more chapter to go! 


	15. Z plus 25 years

Z-plus 25 years: Epilogue

"Patrol group, this is the Galactica. You are clear for landing approach." It was shift change around the Battlestar; a new group has just come out, and so two Vipers and a Raptor were heading for the deck.

"Galactica, Lucky: copy, that. We're setting up for approach," the Raptor's ECO replied.

"Last one on the deck owes me some ambrosia," was the first thing to come across the wireless system once the three-craft squadron had excluded the LSO from their communications loop.

"I'm not racing you, Orion," Romeo told him from his spot in one of the Vipers.

"Come on, you know you want to," the other fighter pilot replied.

"Nope. It ain't happening."

"Aw, what's the matter, Romeo; afraid he'll beat you?" the fourth member of the group, call-sign Starfox, asked. Lucky just laughed at his pilot's antics.

"This coming from the girl in a Raptor," Romeo shot back.

"Hey, my Raptor could kick your ass, too!"

"I'll second that," Lucky added.

"Forget it," he told them. "I've just gotten in enough trouble with the LSO already this week, that's all."

"Gee, that sounds like a forfeit to me," Orion said. "How about to you, Starfox?"

"I think so," she agreed.

"I'm not forfeiting!" Romeo insisted.

Orion laughed. "Then let's go, on my mark."

He sighed, getting his Viper ready. "Fine."

"Three…two…one…mark!" And with that, there were two fighters coming into Galactica's port side landing bay way hotter than they were ever supposed to. Starfox kept the Raptor trailing surprisingly close behind them, handling the vehicle with more grace than many other pilots could.

Just to keep the Landing Signal Officer from murdering them in cold blood, Romeo and Orion eased up on the throttles as they came inside. They knew that making an unnecessary combat landing would get them into more trouble than the race was worth, so they both had to get their birds under a little bit more control before touching down on the deck. What neither of them realized, however, was that since Starfox had been going slower in the first place, she and Lucky were able to touch down quicker. Since the race had been 'first one on the deck,' it looked like they had won.

"Three down," Lucky reported to the LSO. "Leg locks secure."

"So, which one of you is bringing the drinks?" Starfox asked the other two pilots as the lift began to move the Raptor down from the deck.

* * *

Seventeen-year-old Caroline, or Carrie, 'Starfox' Adama grinned at her brother and best friend as the hatch on her Raptor opened and she jumped down from it. "Anybody got a light?" she asked, playfully waving around a stogie, as they climbed down the ladders from their cockpits. 

Twenty-one-year-old Evan 'Romeo' Tyrol rolled his eyes, but started digging through his pockets for a lighter. Before he could find one, though, Carrie's brother plucked the cigar from her hand.

"At least have the sense not to smoke these on deck," Zak 'Orion' Adama told her. "I don't give a frak what you do in your bunkroom, but Mom would kill me if she found out that I was letting you get away with it."

"Aw, poor baby. Being the oldest must really be wretched."

"You are insufferable, you know that?" he asked. Carrie only smiled wider.

"I know. Aren't you glad Mom and Dad decided not to let you be an only child?"

"Hmm, 'glad'…that wasn't quite the word I was thinking of." Zak dodged the elbow his sister tried to hit him in the side with. "Watch it, rook," he told her. "I'm still a superior officer."

"How could I ever forget, Sir?"

"Lieutenants!" They all spun around at the sound of the CAG's voice booming across the deck, snapping to attention. "Where's your ECO?" he asked Carrie.

"Finishing the post-flight, Sir." That answer seemed to be acceptable enough that Lucky's presence wasn't required at the moment.

"Would one of you mind telling me what the frak that was in the landing pod?"

"Just…testing out some flight capabilities on the Mark IVa's, Sir," Evan thought up on the fly.

"Uh-huh. I'm gonna be testing your divot-pounding capabilities if there are any holes in the deck."

"Yes, Sir!" they all chorused. By then, though, the CAG wasn't doing much better of a job of hiding a smile than his three pilots were. He enjoyed giving them a hard time.

"Who won, at least?" Captain Boxman Tyrol asked his little brother and friends. Carrie raised her hand. "You guys are pitiful," he told Evan and Zak. "Either help with maintenance or get off my deck. "The three saluted as he walked off.

"Well, then, I guess we've got another shift starting, huh?" Zak commented, looking around at the bustling hangar deck.

* * *

It wasn't much of a surprise when the CAG looked around deck a little while later and saw Zak, Evan, and Carrie all underneath the same Viper, chattering away as they worked. They were nearly inseparable, and usually a rather dangerous combination. Carrie – who was named after her paternal grandmother – was the youngest pilot on Galactica, but made up for her inexperience with raw, undeniable talent. She'd learned to fly a Raptor earlier than most pilots finish basic flight, and would soon be tackling fighters as well. Evan was just a few months past being classified as a rookie Viper pilot, and was just as good at fixing birds as he was flying them. He was the quick-thinker in the group, and it was usually up to him to try to talk them out of whatever sticky situation Zak got them into. Their hijinks had led to some pretty remarkable disciplinary records that were only matched by the impressiveness of their flight records. 

The threesome spent the next few hours helping the deck crew with Galactica's complement of Mark IIIa and Mark IVa models. All of the fighters were supposed to be participating in a 're-commissioning' ceremony for Galactica that was supposed to be held the next day. The Battlestar was seventy years old, had lived through two wars, and been in use far longer than anyone had ever intended. Her crew had spent the past couple of years doing an overhaul from top to bottom. Everything was finally complete, and the commander had arranged a fleet-wide celebration.

"Okay, I'm out of here," Zak said to the other two a little while later after he checked the time. "If I'm supposed to be in a dress uniform in a half hour, then I suppose I should go make myself look presentable." Carrie looked down at her own grease-covered hands.

"I guess the same thing holds true for me, too, doesn't it?"

Zak teasingly poked at another smudge that was on his sister's face. "Gee, you're quick."

"Are we still on for our usual card game in the mess hall?" Evan asked them. Zak grinned.

"Yeah, I'll bring the deck."

"You'd better be bringing the ambrosia I'm owed as well," Carrie told him.

"You're not old enough to drink!" Zak cried.

"Since when has that ever mattered?"

Evan laughed at the look of exasperation on Zak's face. Carrie may have looked like her father, but she had a rebellious streak that was like her mother made over. "She's your sister," he reminded his friend.

Zak snorted. "Yeah, that means I didn't have a choice in the matter. What's your excuse?" Evan just shrugged. "Besides, you've got a sister, too."

"Yeah, except Hope's on a different ship. So that gives me harrassment rights on you."

"Weren't we supposed to be somewhere?" Carrie cut in.

"Oh, right," Zak told her. "Because Lords know you're ever late to anything."

Evan shook his head, laughing at his friends. "Have fun with the paparazzi," he told them.

"Oh, I'm sure we will," Zak sarcastically replied as he and Carrie left the deck.

* * *

He entered Galactica's conference room twenty-six minutes later, trying to straighten his dress uniform. Unlike when he was a child, Zak far preferred other clothes – like a flight suit, for example – to dress blues, but he could grin and bear it when need be. He noticed the ship's XO enter the room, and an, "Afternoon, Sir," with a salute were automatic. 

"What do you hear?" Commander Kara Thrace asked her son. Zak grinned.

"Nothing but the rain."

"Grab your gun and bring in the cat."

"The cat beat him back the deck," Carrie told her mother as she entered the room as well. "Sir," she belatedly added with a salute of her own.

Kara just smiled. "You two were racing on duty again?"

"Lieutenant Orion doesn't seem to know when to give up," Carrie teased her brother.

"Hey, I beat you back to the deck, I just didn't beat you onto the deck. There's a difference."

"Yeah, well, pretty soon I'm going to be flying Vipers, too, and then I'll beat you in any way you'd like."

"Dream on," Zak shot back. "So where's Dad?"

"It's not my turn to watch him," Kara replied. "He's been out of the CIC most of the day."

"Well, then since we've got a minute, can somebody please remind me of the point of this thing again?" Carrie asked.

"A civilization needs history," Kara told her. "As much as we all hate it, we're part of that history. And you can't learn anything from the past if it's not documented…or some nonsense like that."

"You're a third generation ace-in-the-making," Zak told his sister. "Deal with it."

"I think I liked Mom's version better," Carrie decided. Zak rolled his eyes.

"Well, I suppose three out of four isn't bad," the military PR person said as he came in with a gaggle of reporters following behind. "Although, number four is rather important."

"That's a matter of opinion," Commander Lee Adama said as he entered the room. "Don't start," he told both of his children before they could either call for attention on deck or offer salutes. He had enough people kissing his ass every day in the CIC – he didn't need it from his family when they were all technically off duty.

"Yes, Sir," they replied with smiles.

"Where do you want us?" Lee asked the PR man.

"How about we put the flags in the background," he suggested. They all moved to stand in front of the flags for Galactica and the Colonies that were hanging on the wall. "Let's get the Commanders in the middle…very nice, I like that. Lieutenant Adama, would you stand on the left?"

"Which one?" Zak and Carrie asked in almost perfect unison. The man looked confused.

"Um…left, beside your father."

"No, which Lieutenant Adama," Zak clarified.

"Oh! Lieutenant Junior Grade."

"You know, you can just call me Carrie," she said as she moved to stand where he'd requested. "Or you could use our call signs."

"See, that's a perfect example of why I never changed my last name," Kara told her husband.

"Did I ever argue with you?"

Once all four of them were assembled, the photographers started clicking away. Considering they weren't even changing poses, Lee couldn't figure out why they all needed so many shots. A moment before he would have ended the thing himself, the PR person calling,

"All right, thank you very much," was the cue for the reporters to move on to the next stop on their tour. After a few moments, the Adama family was left alone in the conference room.

"I managed to dig something up a couple days ago," Zak told his father before he could leave. "I thought this would be an appropriate time to give it to you." He handed Lee a framed picture, which had been taken in honor of Galactica's decommissioning ceremony. Lee and his father were standing rather stiffly for the photo in the very same room they were in now. "Just a little reminder of when the ship was unofficially un-decommissioned," Zak explained. "I know he'd be proud of you, if he was here."

Lee smiled at his son, eyes bright. "Thank you."

"Lords help us if Zak winds up in command one day," Carrie said, trying to lighten things up a bit.

"I gotta get to being CAG first," he replied. She considered that.

"Yeah, all right. You're almost a big enough dipstick for that job."

Lee could hear them playfully bickering, just like they'd been doing every day since Carrie had learned to talk, but he wasn't really paying much attention to anything other than the picture in his hands. He finally looked up when Kara's fingers twined through his. "Is that going in your office?" she asked.

"I was thinking of the corridor outside CIC. I mean, it's more his ship than mine. It's always been his ship."

"Can you believe it's been almost 30 years since that was taken?" Lee looked back at his children.

"Yeah. I see them, and I can believe it. And I wouldn't change a thing."

* * *

FIN. 

This last part was just a random burst of inspiration I got, but now I'm debating coming up with a third story that would be Zak, Carrie, and their squadron's adventures. Yay or nay? And thanks so much for all the reviews and support I've gotten. This is one of the biggest things I've ever undertaken, and I'm hoping that it turned out well.

UPDATE: I've gotten started on the third story in this series, Foreverland. It takes place about a year before this epilogue, and answers a lot of questions that have been common in the review's I've received.


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